


Sharpened Crimson

by Lyn_Laine



Series: Sharpened [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Female Ichigo, Gen, fem!ichigo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3715066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyn_Laine/pseuds/Lyn_Laine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You were probably just dreaming."  I knew I hadn't been.  This girl.  She was somehow responsible.  </p><p>(Ichigo is born a girl instead.  From there, everything goes straight to hell.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Usually, when I start stories, I start them knowing how they're going to end. Usually, when I start posting stories, I've actually already finished them. Watch me go off the deep end here, people:
> 
> None of that applies to this story.
> 
> It's all just completely me making it up as I go along. I have no idea when or how I'm going to finish. I'm posting it on a whim because I felt like getting some feedback.
> 
> With that said, please do enjoy.

1.

I would always remember clearly that last day before my mother was murdered.

It was a Saturday. I was nine years old. Mom made a big breakfast, with me running around her ankles, getting things for her and “helping” (read: making a mess), the entire time. My mother, Masaki, was beautiful, elegant, womanly, and I wanted to be just like her one day.

While my mother was putting things on the table, my father snuck up behind me and swept me up into his huge arms. He attacked me with kisses as I squealed, laughing. “Dad! Stop! Stop! I’m too old for stuff like that!”

Dad stood back, wounded. “You’re never too old for kisses from your Daddy!” Then he brightened, put me down, and charged after my six-year-old twin sisters, Karin and Yuzu. “You’re not too old for your Daddy, right girls?!” Karin and Yuzu shrieked and ran away in opposite directions. With lightning fast reflexes, Isshin managed to catch them both.

We all sat around the table and set to eating. “What’s on the menu for today?” Isshin asked over brunch.

Masaki smiled serenely and looked at her daughters. “Oh, a trip to the park, I think,” she said, mock thoughtful, and all three of us girls brightened.

“Park! Park!” Yuzu sang.

Karin turned to me. “And you’ll play with us, right Maki?” She gave her best little girl glare.

I smiled. “Of course,” I said. I could never say no to my sisters.

“And if any of you run off this time, I’m tying you down and implanting you with tracking devices.” Masaki kept smiling even as her daughters complained. She and Isshin shared a wry glance.

Dad went off to work -- he was a doctor. Masaki helped all three girls get their coats on by the front door and we walked out together into the street. I stopped and made my family go around for every caterpillar we encountered on the sidewalk. I smiled and waved to my best friend Tatsuki, who lived next door, as we passed. I said hello to Ms. Iyagatami, an older woman who was watering her flower box, a couple of doors down. “Need any help?” I asked, sticking my head over the fence. I helped Ms. Iyagatami take care of her flowers sometimes.

“No, not today,” said Ms. Iyagatami, “but here. You can have one.” She picked a flower and handed me the daisy.

I smiled and thanked her, before giving the flower to Yuzu, who kept begging for it.

We made it to the park. Masaki sat back and let her daughters free, watching in amusement from a bench. I played around spiritedly with my sisters for a few minutes, laughing and making them laugh, before leaving them on the teeter totter and going into a shady corner of the park to curl up with a book. I was halfway through chapter two when I felt a pair of eyes on me, and I looked up idly, distracted.

Across the park, underneath a tree, stood a girl. She had wan skin, an oddly shaped face, straight dark hair cut brutally short, and thin satisfied lips. In every way, I was her polar opposite -- I had bright orange pigtails and smiling crescent brown eyes and everyone told me I was pretty, which this girl was not, precisely -- but for some reason I felt drawn to her anyway. The girl looked directly at me, and I fell deeper and deeper into her fathomless dark eyes...

“Maki!”

I only came back to myself at my mother’s shout. I realized I had been walking straight at the girl, and was now so close we were almost under the same shade. I heard my mother run up behind me, felt her push me to the ground and throw herself on top of me. I hit my head against the ground and blacked out.

-

I woke, dazed, to the smell of earth and the sounds of screaming, crying. I blinked hazily for a moment, and then tried to sit up -- there was something big and heavy on top of me. I crawled out from underneath it, sat up -- and gasped.

My mother was lying there on the ground, face pale, eyes glassy and lifeless. Dead. Her back was covered in deep, bloody scars, the blood soaking into her shirt. Karin and Yuzu were standing there, staring at their mother, eyes streaming, mouths open and wailing in despair.

I stood quickly, but there was nothing I could do. I felt my throat close up, felt the tears sting my eyes, as grief hit me in full force. I put a hand to my mouth, shaking, staring and staring at my mother. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. I had to be strong -- I had to be strong for Karin and Yuzu.

I went over to Karin and Yuzu, knelt down before them and hugged them. They clung to me tightly with little fists. I put a hand on each of their heads, the way Masaki used to, and I nearly started crying. Nearly.

“What happened?” I asked with a deep breath. “What did you see?” I stood Karin and Yuzu back so I could look them in the eye. It hit me, then, that I needed to know -- I needed to know how my mother had died. “What did you see?”

Their mouths trembled. “Nothing,” Karin whispered. “She was running toward you, and she just collapsed, in a bunch of blood...” Her mouth shook too much and she started crying again.

“So you’re telling me -- nothing killed her?” That couldn’t be right. I thought back. “There was a girl,” I said slowly. The girl with the short hair and the thin, satisfied lips. I looked around, but the girl was gone. There was no one underneath the tree.

“Did you see a girl?” I asked, standing up quickly. But Karin and Yuzu said slowly, confused, that they had seen no girl. “She’s gone...” I whispered. And it all clicked into place in my head: That girl knew something. She had to.

Which meant I was going to find her.

That was the day my childhood ended.

-

A month later, I walked straight into the local police station after school, still wearing my backpack, and up to the desk. “I need to talk to someone about my case,” I said stubbornly, and kept saying it until someone answered me.

The police officer looked over his desk and raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Someone as young as you has a case?”

“I’m the girl whose mother was murdered in Yumizawa Children’s Park.” I forced myself to say it lifelessly, toneless. I’d had some practice with speaking like this lately.

The man’s face paled significantly. He went to get someone, and I saw some furious arguing between a couple of police officials as they looked through a file. Then, at last, a female officer came forward, smiling peaceably. “Honey,” she said kindly, “why don’t I take you through into the back?”

I could already guess what the answer was going to be. I’d prepared herself for it. So as I walked through the police station, I took a good, long look around -- memorized the terrain. I was taken into a back office, and the police officer knelt down before me.

“Sweetheart,” said the officer. I didn’t like her. “We’ve been looking as hard as we can, but we just can’t find any leads. It’s a strange case. I’m sorry.”

“You can’t find the girl?”

The police officer smiled falsely. “There was no DNA evidence there besides yours and your family’s,” she said. “No one else saw her but you. And even if she had been there, she was too small to do that kind of damage. There was no girl. You were probably just dreaming.”

I knew I hadn’t been. This girl. She was somehow responsible.

I looked down, my hands curling into tight fists. I knew what to do now. I’d planned for it. It was time to take matters into my own hands.

-

First, I went to my friend Tatsuki, who was in karate. “Tatsuki-chan,” I announced, “I’ve decided I should learn some self defense. You were right all along.”

Tatsuki brightened. I knew Tatsuki had been worried about me lately -- I had become much quieter, and I hadn’t smiled since my mother had died. “I knew you’d see the light!” Ever the tomboy, Tatsuki leaped upward and punched the air. “Let’s go get you signed up for classes!”

“There’s something I want you to teach me first,” I said.

Tatsuki was curious. “Yeah?”

“If I wanted to punch someone and hold them down... how exactly would I go about doing that?”

Tatsuki grew more serious, her eyes narrowing. “You’re not in some kind of trouble, are you?” Tatsuki was very protective of her friends.

“Nope.” I gave a weaker version of my usual smile, with effort. “I just wanna get to the good stuff first.”

Tatsuki looked in my eyes for a moment, and then she smiled. “Alright, then,” she said. “Let’s get started. The start to any good fight is a strong stance.”

Tatsuki taught me to do a strong basic stance. Then she taught me how to punch: not too high or too low, but straight out from the side, with the thumb outside and under the fist. Hit the nose with the first two knuckles. Sweep the feet. Kick in the balls. Pin down by the arms and legs.

-

“Daichi-san!”

My classmate Daichi looked around, puzzled, as I ran up to him with a false smile.

“How are you?” I asked earnestly.

Daichi frowned. “Fine...”

“Look. I’ve got to be honest,” I said. “I have a tiny little favor to ask of you. Daichi-san, your older brother knows hacking, right?”

Daichi was suspicious. “Yes...”

“So you know hacking, right?” 

“The basics...”

“Do you think you could teach it to me?” 

“No,” Daichi said immediately, smirking with smug superiority, and he turned away.

“Aww, come on, please?!”

“Not unless you kiss me,” said Daichi.

I paused. “What?” I asked cautiously.

“Not unless you kiss me,” Daichi repeated, in the tone of one who knows their victory, and then he waited expectantly with his eyes closed and his lips puckered.

He didn’t see the smile die, a true intentness coming over my face.

Straight out from the side. Hit the nose with the first two knuckles.

Daichi cried out, going down, bleeding heavily from the face.

Sweep the feet. Kick in the balls.

Daichi’s scream was louder this time.

Pin down with the arms and legs.

Daichi was crying as my shadow came over him. The old Maki would have cared. Not the new Maki. The new Maki had a mission, and she cared about one thing and one thing only. My face intent, I pinned my classmate down and said coldly:

“Teach. Me. Hacking!” My eyes widened at the end.

“Alright. Alright...” Daichi sobbed, his nose bloody.

I sat back on my heels and calmly handed Daichi the packet of tissues I’d been carrying in my pocket.

I would forevermore carry the school opinion of being cold, emotionless, and unreachable, a reputation I would do nothing to dissuade as the years passed. The warm, gentle, smiling, daydreaming Maki was no more.

-

I took Daichi’s basic instructions and ran with them. I tested myself with hacking bigger and bigger sites, always making sure my IP address was different every time, during and after each job. At last, I found and hacked into the biggest site of all: the online database for the Rikujou Jieitai, Japan’s Self Defense Force.

I made the news this time. Well, anonymously.

-

I looked up from my list of names. Several were crossed off. I’d found a list of former Jieitai members who now lived in Karakura-cho. I’d been going around, asking each and every person to teach me military stealth training. And so far, I’d gotten a lot of laughter.

This was my latest stop. Erizawa Hiro. Male. Fifty-two.

I took a deep breath before walking through the doors and into the bar. I passed by the incredulous stares of several grown men, and went determinedly up to the bartender. “Sir,” I said to the elderly, dignified man with short graying hair and bared, stringily muscular arms, “are you Erizawa Hiro?”

The man glared down at me suspiciously. “You need to get out now,” he said shortly.

“I want you to teach me military stealth training,” I said stubbornly.

He didn’t even blink. “You need to get out now,” he repeated. I was, reluctantly, impressed.

“If I wait around later, will you teach me military stealth training?”

“No. I don’t know how you found out about my time in the Jieitai. But you need to leave.”

“Why?”

“A bar is no place for a little girl.” He carried the air of someone who did not usually speak for long periods of time.

“Alright. Thank you for your time,” I said, despite my annoyance. And I turned to leave. I was almost out the door when his voice rang out behind me.

“Where did you get that bag?”

I turned around in surprise. “This?” I pointed at the bag over my shoulder. It was from Iyagatami Flowers. Erizawa Hiro’s eyes had fixed themselves on the name “Iyagatami.”

“Yes. Where is that shop?” 

I smirked. “I’ll tell you if you teach me,” I offered.

Erizawa’s eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps I will just follow you home. Or look it up online.”

I thought fast. “It has no website. And if you do follow me,” I added quickly, “I’ll tell Ms. Iyagatami that you’re a bad man. And she likes me. My opinion carries...” I thought carefully. “Weight,” I decided at last.

Erizawa stared at me, hard, for a moment.

“Why do you want to know where she is?” I asked, deciding I wanted to know more about this Erizawa Hiro.

A look of sorrow came over his features. “Before my time in the military,” he said softly, “I used to be in love with an Iyagatami Kohaku.”

I thought for a while. “That’s the name of the woman I know,” I said, and then added, “And she’s still single. So how about this? You teach me stealth training. And don’t ask me why I want to know it. And I’ll not only show you to Ms. Iyagatami, I’ll help you get her.”

“Why would a little girl be able to help me with that? What do you know of love?”

“I don’t have to know about love. I just have to know Iyagatami Kohaku.”

And in the end, despite his better judgement, Erizawa agreed. “Alright,” he said. “We have a deal.”

-

We would meet in a park every afternoon. Erizawa put me through harsh physical conditioning -- hundreds of push ups, sit ups, runs, and swims.

“Keep going,” he would say stonily every time I collapsed. “Don’t think you get special treatment because you’re a little girl!”

He drew the line at teaching me how to shoot a gun, but at my request, he did teach me basic throwing aim with a series of targets across the park from me.

One evening, after an afternoon of training, I woke up staring at the night sky and realized I’d passed out. A coat was covering me. It was Erizawa’s coat. Erizawa was sitting silently beside me, watching the night sky fathomlessly.

-

“... It is her.” Erizawa was peeking out around the corner of the building, like me. Across the street from us, Iyagatami Kohaku was behind the counter of Iyagatami Flowers.

I would never forget the look on Erizawa’s face as he watched Iyagatami Kohaku. It was a breathless kind of awe. His eyes never left her face. I found myself wondering if anyone would ever look at me like that.

A minute after I had the thought, I dismissed it as stupid and irrelevant. But it stayed there, floating around in the back of my brain.

“That’s my first part of the deal,” I said, “done. But in order for me to fulfill the rest of my promise, you need to fulfill yours.” I crossed my arms firmly.

-

Technically, Erizawa could have ended it right there, but to my endless surprise, he didn’t. He taught me how to creep, how to silent walk, and how to climb a tree properly -- which, apparently, I didn’t know how to do.

“You don’t breathe correctly,” he said sharply. “And you expend too much effort doing everything. It must be sliding. Easy. Natural. Stable. Silent.”

He made me practice walking quietly even when he wasn’t with me, so it would be ingrained in my brain. My father started jokingly calling me “the shadow.” Karin and Yuzu, more canny, knew what was going on -- they were, in fact, the only people who did.

“It’s soon, isn’t it?” Karin asked.

-

I was hiding, practicing my stealth, tracking the couple and watching through a lot of Kohaku and Hiro’s firsts. I knew their beginning even better than I knew my own parents’.

I watched from around a corner across the street as Hiro asked Kohaku out by walking into her store after a display had fallen (courtesy of my throwing skills) and helping her pick it up. Kohaku recognized him, and they got to talking as he helped her clean up the broken glass, and when he asked her out, she beamed and said yes.

They’d done it this way because I had said Kohaku appreciated physical gestures of care more than words.

I crept up and watched from a rooftop across the street from Kohaku’s house on the night Hiro came up to Kohaku’s doorstep with flowers. I listened carefully as he listed off all the flowers in the bouquet and what each one signified: Amaryllis (for splendid beauty but also for a worth beyond beauty), Gardenia (for a secret love for a lovely person), Stock (for lasting beauty and a happy life), Lilies (for purity and refined beauty), and Tulips (for a declaration of love). I watched as Kohaku looked swept away as they went off for their date together.

They’d done it this way because I said Kohaku loved people who knew the meanings behind flowers.

I snuck around after them through Tokyo as they went on their date. I watched as Hiro took Kohaku out for Thai food (her favorite), as he made more of an effort to be a conversationalist (because she loved socializing), and I noticed him work in his talk of some of the places he’d been to with the Jieitai (because she loved travel).

All choices had been made based on my recommendations.

I wasn’t discovered following them once.

-

My final stealth test took place in an open, grassy field. I started on one end of the field and snuck, through the tall grasses, carefully carefully, a thousand meters down. I made it silently, unnoticed, close to the truck without help.

The truck came within range and I moved -- careful with each and every step --around the truck. Now this was the really hard part. I threw something sideways through the grasses and in the same moment I jumped in a different direction onto the truck. The noise in the grass disguised the slight bump of my feet on the truck.

Erizawa, who had been sitting on the truck, looked over through the grasses toward the noise and frowned, moving to get down from the truck --

Which was right when I put one hand around his mouth from behind and another around his throat.

Erizawa froze. I knew he could have killed me, tensed as he was, but he didn’t. I stood, went around him, and bowed sharply.

“... Very good,” said Erizawa at last, reserved. “Training complete.”

It was the first compliment he had ever paid me.

-

I practiced breaking and entering by climbing up onto the rooftop of Iyagatami Flowers and then breaking through silently into the shop below.

I crept up into the rafters of the shop by the light switch and crouched there, lying in wait, all day. I was dark and immovable, unnoticed, when Kohaku entered the shop. And I forced myself through the pain to crouch there all day into the afternoon, patient and still, until at last Hiro entered the shop.

“Back for some more flowers to impress another lady?” Kohaku asked Hiro slyly.

Hiro smiled, walking over and taking her face in his hands. “Just one,” he whispered softly.

And that was my cue. I dimmed the lights by the light switch up in the rafters. The lights softened as Kohaku and Hiro kissed, and thus was the wooing complete and all that crap.

And right at that exact same moment, the rafter underneath my feet gave way with a snap and I was left hanging there, right beside the couple’s heads, clutching the rafter for dear life. They stopped and stared over at me.

“Uh... hi?” I said.

“Maki-chan?! What on earth is going on?!” Kohaku backed up, frowning and indignant, and it risked undoing all the work we had been carefully building up on.

So I did Hiro one last favor.

“Alright, alright.” I stood and raised my hands placatingly. “I found some old soldier who was still madly in love with you and I thought it was so romantic I told him to go for it. So sue me, okay?”

“I thought all this was just a little too perfect...” Kohaku’s lips had thinned.

“He wanted to learn all about you so he could get it all right! He’s really in love with you,” I said earnestly, and at last Kohaku began to soften.

“Well,” she said, “him I might not believe. But maybe... Maki, maybe I’ll believe you.”

-

Erizawa Hiro and Iyagatami Kohaku moved in together, just down the street from my family. The couple became my good friends, though only one of them ever knew about the stealth training.

“Maki,” Hiro said seriously, “I don’t know what you’re using that training for, and I don’t want to. Though I have a feeling it has something to do with your mother.”

I stared at my toes stonily.

“But let me just recommend this,” Hiro continued, “you train hard and you would make a damn good fighter. You should continue further, and become a martial artist.”

On Erizawa Hiro’s recommendation, I got some names from Tatsuki and enrolled in karate, kendo, and kickboxing lessons. My father’s nickname for me stuck. Around classes and my home, I became “the shadow.”

-

“Are you two sure you want to come with me?” I asked them urgently, serious. “You could get hurt.”

“We want to come with you!” Yuzu’s face was earnest.

“We deserve it -- we were there, too.” Karin’s eyes were fierce, hard, in a way they hadn’t been before Masaki’s death.

“Alright, girls,” I said solemnly. “Tomorrow night, we go.”

-

I was dressed in dark clothes that covered me completely; on my hands were a pair of latex gloves, and in my hands was a piece of paper and a walkie talkie.

I had sent Karin and Yuzu on ahead, to sit on a bench across the street from the police station. Each hid a connected walkie talkie somewhere on their person. It was late at night. I crept up by the shadows of the buildings, keeping away from the street lamps, keeping silent as the grave. In a moment, I breathed into the walkie talkie, “I’m going to go.”

I ran, silently, past the police station, ducking underneath the front window. I ran silently around the side of the building, to a back window I remembered being there in that office I’d been led to. This was where my memory of the station was critical.

I ducked, and then peeked up over the edge of the window. As I’d thought, the office was dark; no one was there this late at night except the lone police officer sitting at the front desk in another part of the building. I pulled the needle hair pin I’d worn especially for tonight from out of my long orange hair, letting it hang loose, and then I slid the hair pin in the edge between the shut window and the window sill. The window popped open.

I aimed, and threw.

The hairpin struck the security camera in the ceiling corner on the opposing side of the room. The camera would now have blacked out. I slid up and silently through the window, and I was in the darkened police station. I walked over, stood on my tiptoes, and took the hair pin out, putting it back in my tied up hair. (I’d wrapped it in plastic, just in case.) I crept to the office door; I opened it slowly, carefully. Thankfully, it didn’t creak.

I crept silently down the darkened hall to the computer room I remembered being on my left. This way down, of course, it would be on my right. I opened the door silently, and there were the computers. I closed the door carefully behind me, slid the blinds down over the lone room window that led out into the hallway, and only then did I turn on the light.

I went to sit down before the computer, and I scanned onto it a picture I had drawn, detailed and life like, of the girl from the park. I was good at drawing. Before my mother had died and I’d set out to find what had happened, reading and drawing had taken up most of my life.

I put the walkie talkie up to my mouth. “I’m in, and at the computer,” I breathed.

“Be careful, Nee-chan,” Yuzu whispered.

“We’ll let you know if anyone comes toward the station,” Karin added quietly.

This was my pact with them: that I wouldn’t put them in deliberate danger, but that they could help.

I, with my increased knowledge of computers, quickly figured out how the system worked. I sat there for two long hours before the computer as it took my image and compared it through facial recognition software to every photo ID picture taken of girls and women around the Tokyo area in the last decade. This included passports, driver’s licenses, victim photos, and juvenile detention photos. The computer looked for familial similarity as well as exact replicas.

It came up with a few pictures and names, but though I searched through them methodically, none of them even came close to looking like my girl. I wrote them down anyway, and would research them later, but would come up with nothing.

There was another alternative.

It was like this girl didn’t exist. No DNA. No one else saw her. Nothing in the system. Nothing.

I turned the walkie talkie on. “... Karin, Yuzu,” I said, “I can’t find her. But listen to this -- I have a crazy idea. What if, what if the girl I saw -- wasn’t really a live person?”

Ever since I was little, I’d been able to see the dead. Ghosts. Spirits. They wandered around, just as vivid for me as the living. The older I got, the better my Sight got. At first, I had assumed this girl couldn’t be dead, because she had something to do with a living person’s death.

But it was beginning to seem like that was the only option.

“What, are you saying a ghost killed Mom?” Karin asked incredulously.

“Maybe -- maybe a really old one,” I said, my mind spinning as I sat back.

“But, Nee-chan, how is that possible?” Yuzu asked hesitantly. “Ghosts can’t touch humans. They just go right through them. And besides, if it was a ghost, how would Mom have seen anything? She never had the Sight like the three of us did.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s what I’m wondering.”

-

Five Years Later

The Routine:

Dress in a high school uniform, fitted to a tall, slim girl. Tie long, straight orange hair up behind head with sharp needles. Put on makeup: garnet red lipstick, almond blush, cocoa eyeliner, toffee eyeshadow -- painted over sharp features and around crescent brown eyes. Dabbed on a long, elegant white neck is a hint of a perfume called Black Opium, which combines coffee, pear, jasmine, pink pepper, and orange blossom with a base of patchouli, vanilla, and cedar wood. Coffee brown slip-ons with ivory inside trim go on long feet. Yellow gold drop earrings with yin-yang shaped stones made of turquoise and pink opal go in the ears -- feminine, but not enough so to be in the way.

Go down into the kitchen. Make breakfast for everyone else in the house. Call up the stairs sharply for everyone else to get down here.

Dad comes down and calls me his sweet little girl. He attempts to squash me in a hug and I let him hug me, rolling my eyes and then breaking neatly out of his grasp.

Karin and Yuzu come down the stairs after him. They thank me for their breakfasts and head off to school. I go out the door behind them and walk them to school part of the way, before veering off toward Karakura High.

Make it through classes. Pay sharp attention and take perfect notes in every class. Coldly and stiffly deflect all foreign attempts to make friends or ask me out on dates.

Once during break, a boy walks up to me and asks me out just because his friends dared him to. I say no. I can tell he is going to lose the bet.

“Why don’t you ever talk to anybody?” he asks.

“Because I don’t want to,” I answer flatly, sarcastic.

“Frigid bitch,” he responds.

I walk away. I go into the bathroom, shut myself in a stall, and cry silently for five minutes. I put all my makeup back into place. I go back to class and no one besides my friends can tell there is any difference at all.

At lunch, Tatsuki and Orihime try to get me to say what’s wrong. Once I admit it, Tatsuki offers heatedly to beat the boy up for me.

“Oh, Tatsuki-chan, that won’t solve anything,” sighs Orihime.

“But it’ll make me feel better,” Tatsuki mutters.

Orihime turns to me. “Remember what you told me, Maki-chan, about the girls who used to pick on me in middle school? Remember how we became friends? You said they were just jealous because of how special I am. Well, it’s the same thing. That boy doesn’t like you because he can’t have you.”

“Though, you could have said yes,” adds Tatsuki. “God knows you’re pretty enough to have a boy in your life. You really don’t socialize enough, you know.”

Finish with classes. Ignore the teacher who mutters that I looks like a “Yankee.” Go to kendo and karate club meetings. Spar with people -- mostly boys, sometimes Tatsuki, Orihime, or Mizuho. Practice stealth training and throwing practice on some dummies late that afternoon at the school gym. Kickbox the punching bags rather viciously.

Spend another two hours at the school library completing homework.

In the early evening, go to Yumizawa Children’s Park, the site of my mother’s death. I sit at the spot where my mother died. Intently practice The Sight on the ghost of a little boy who likes to play in this park. My Sight is getting pretty good now.

Always, always, I am on the lookout, checking the ghosts around me. Looking for signs as to how my mother might have died. Looking for signs as to why I have never Seen the ghost of my mother. I still haven’t found the ghost of the girl yet, though I have searched Tokyo over many times.

Perhaps it is morbid, visiting the site of my childhood’s death so many times. But I need to remember. I need to remember the unfairness of my mother’s death.

Take care of any ghosts in the area who need help from one with the Sight. Sometimes it’s cleaning their graves, sometimes it’s scaring hooligans away from their resting places. Save the most devastating attacks for people who underestimate my fighting abilities because I’m a girl.

Go home. Clean the house. Cook dinner.

Spend time with Karin and Yuzu. Teach them about stealth and fighting. Help them practice their own Sight. Help them with their hair, with a rare, gentle smile -- they admire me, value my opinion and want to look like me.

Spend some down time reading and drawing before bed. Go to sleep.

Don’t get enough sleep. Too many things to do.

Wake up and do the whole thing over again.

This is the routine. The routine is about to be broken.


	2. Chapter Two

2.

I was walking my sisters to school that morning. 

“We can make our own way, you know,” Karin was saying. “You don’t have to walk us the whole way there.”

“There was an explosion in another section of town this morning and no one knows who’s behind it,” I said. “I’m making sure you get to school.” Here, I glared slightly for effect.

Karin snorted, unfazed. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “So you can shield us from the explosion with the power of your awesomeness.”

“Exactly. Now shut up and walk in that direction.”

“She’s right, you know, Nee-chan,” Yuzu added in idle concern. “Awesome as you are, I don’t think you can ninja your way out of an explosion -”

We were interrupted. By an explosion, funny enough.

We ducked as a window a floor above us burst outward. I covered my head and neck with my hands as glass fragments littered the asphalt around us. I caught sight of a ghost girl I usually helped, one of my regulars, shouting and running past me.

“Run!” she screamed. 

I stood straight and looked around urgently. “Karin, Yuzu, are you alright? Let’s get out of he -!”

I paused as a dark figure loomed above me. I looked up, and up, and I gasped. 

It was a giant insect, as tall as a skyscraper. It had a wide, clear hole through its abdomen and a white mask face with leering skull teeth. I could see nothing through the eye holes -- nothing but a dark emptiness, lit only by a single gold light of cognitive recognition.

“Maki? Nee-san, what is it?”

I looked around wildly. Yuzu and Karin were standing there, puzzled, completely ignorant of the monster looming above them.

I pointed, my voice shaking. “You -- you guys can’t see that?”

Karin squinted. “Well... actually, I can see a dark kind of blur...”

“You’re right,” said Yuzu thoughtfully. “Me, too...”

Karin and Yuzu were younger than me, so their Sight wasn’t as strong. And they were, in fact, older than I had been on that fateful day.

I looked around, my eyes narrowing. It was a spirit. People below a certain spiritual level couldn’t see it. And it could attack living world things. 

Might it know something about my mother’s death?

Knowing I was close, I waved a hand to my sisters without looking at them. “Take cover! Hide somewhere! No matter what happens, don’t come out to meet me!” I said sharply.

“Wha -?” Yuzu began, but Karin pulled her away.

“Come on, Yuzu!” she muttered. “It’s a spirit!”

They hid behind a trash can in an alleyway adjacent to the road, and watched everything as it unfolded. Well, what they could see of it, anyway.

The monster went to move after Karin and Yuzu; I ran in front of them, blocking its way, holding my arms out. The monster spirit stopped, the light in its eyes narrowing, and it tilted its head at me eerily. 

“What are you?!” I barked. “Do you know a monster who uses a ghost girl as a front?!”

The Hollow lashed out with its pincers. I dodged, jumped, somersaulted, dodged, and its pincers hit window after window to the side of me. 

“Do you know of Kurosaki Masaki?!” I shouted.

The Hollow paused, and its eyes narrowed in a sneer. “And why,” a voice echoed out from behind the mask after a moment, “would I tell you a thing like that?”

“My beef is not with you,” I said steadily. “I’m looking for a monster who uses a ghost girl as a front to attack people, especially girls and women.”

“Well, that sounds like a particularly powerful Hollow called the Grand Fisher. But there are many Hollows that use other spirits as bait for particularly powerful souls. And unfortunately for you, I have a beef with you. Your soul is powerful, and smells delicious!”

They ate souls. That would explain why I hadn’t seen my mother’s soul. It all fit!

The -- Hollow, was it? -- lashed out with its pincers again, wanting to eat my powerful soul, a soul with the Sight. I dodged again and then jumped back, bouncing off the wall behind me and aiming out for the Hollow’s face in a kick. But the Hollow chuckled, and I went right through it like it was a ghost. I skidded and landed hard on my side behind the Hollow.

It could only touch living world things when it consciously decided to. Shit! That gave it the advantage!

The Hollow moved toward that trash can my sisters were hidden behind. I cursed myself and moved to help them, because I’d be damned if I was going to be the death of my sisters too -!

But then I didn’t have to help Karin and Yuzu. Because someone else had.

The being was a girl. Ready for it now, I could sense that the girl was a spirit. Not a ghost -- she had no chain hanging from her chest -- but a spirit without a body. The girl was small and pale, bird-like and delicate, and she had soft, inky dark hair that fell around her shoulders. She was dressed in dark samurai robes and wielded a katana sword.

The girl leaped up into the air, and floated there. She cut her sword through the Hollow’s head, and down through its body. The Hollow dissolved into thin air with one high, screeching howl, and it was gone. 

That. I zeroed in on the girl. That was what I wanted to be able to do.

I ran out into the street in front of the girl, and pointed at her. “You! In the black robes with the sword! Yeah, you!” The girl paused, staring at me in genuine surprise, her previous reserve gone to be replaced by a look of complete disbelief. “Yes, I can see you. What are you? How did you do that? How could that Hollow touch living world things?”

The girl frowned at me, floating down to the ground. “You,” she said at last, as if this was of great significance, “should not be able to see me.”   
“Answer my questions,” I said tightly, glaring.

The girl still looked puzzled as she answered slowly. “I am a Shinigami. I, like some souls are, was born with a soul power called reiatsu. Because of this, upon my death I became a Shinigami. You must have much of it, too, to be able to see Shinigami in life. The Hollow had reiatsu as well -- that’s how it moved between realms.”

“So if I were to destroy a Hollow, I would need to access my reiatsu?”

“You cannot destroy a Hollow. Only Shinigami can do that.”

“And how do I become one of these -- Shinigami?”

The girl smiled humorlessly. “You die,” she said simply.

My mind was spinning. “Is that the only way?”

The girl shrugged elegantly. “Shinigami can give their powers away, but it is forbidden by high command for us to do so. Do not expect such a gift from me, certainly,” she added contemptuously. “Now, excuse me, I have other duties to attend to.”

“You have other Hollows to kill?”

“Yes, that is correct.” The girl lifted her chin and looked down her nose at me. I felt a tick of annoyance.

“Do you -- do you always get to Hollows before they eat any souls?”

“Not always,” shrugged the girl. “There are many Hollows.” The careless way she said it made me see red as I thought of my mother.

“Very well,” I said tightly. “Thank you.” And I stepped aside.

“Just remember,” said the girl, walking past me, “keep out of our way.” And then she disappeared.

Karin and Yuzu ran out to meet me. I told them what had transpired. “What are you going to do now?” asked Yuzu.

I was thinking fast. “I need to find this reiatsu,” I said at last. “I need to find it for myself. Step one: I learn how to move my body between realms. Step two: I give out a pulse and call Hollows to myself. Step three: I keep pushing back Hollows until a Shinigami comes to help me. Step four: I attack the Shinigami, hold them down, and suck the power out of them. If powers can be gifted, surely they can also be stolen.”

“But what if a Shinigami doesn’t come?” Karin asked.

“Then I keep beating the crap out of Hollows until I find one willing to tell me where the Grand Fisher is.”

“Won’t you feel guilty, stealing a spirit’s powers?” Yuzu asked.

“If they’re all as holier-than-thou as that girl?” I smirked. “Not at all.”

-

I put aside all my usual activities and over an intensive next few days, I concentrated on finding this “reiatsu.” Karin and Yuzu worked beside me. 

It was hard at first. We weren’t really getting anywhere until Yuzu had the idea of going out to that park to watch the ghost of that little boy. “Surely we must use reiatsu when we look at ghosts,” she said.

And when I concentrated on my body while watching the spirit of that little boy, I could sense it. The spirit power flowing through me. It thrummed through my body and moved out in a constant, thick cloud around me. After that, it was a simple matter of putting the reiatsu into the part of my body I wanted to move into the other realm. So if I wanted to punch a Hollow, I channeled reiatsu into my fist. Simple enough.

Next, I had us practice something else. Me and my sisters trained ourselves in erasing our reiatsu signature -- in containing all our power within our bodies and erasing the cloud that leaked out around us.

There was a reason I wanted them to practice this.

“You two aren’t going to be there when I call the Hollows to me,” I told them sternly.

Karin opened her mouth in protest. “But -” Even Yuzu looked unhappy.

“No,” I said. “Here’s why. If I’m eaten trying to defeat those Hollows, you two are going to have to go find the Grand Fisher for me once you get older. I’ve taught you about stealth, fighting, and reiatsu. As long as you keep growing in strength, there’s no reason why you couldn’t be just as good as me, and more knowledgeable. Karin, I’m looking at you especially here, because you’re even stronger than Yuzu. You’re almost as strong as I was at twelve.”

“You just don’t want us to get hurt,” Karin muttered, but she and Yuzu had straightened, feeling serious, important.

“Alright,” I said. “Now, here’s what we’re going to do.”

-

“Come on, Dad, we want to hang out with you. Stop complaining.” Karin rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, isn’t this what you’ve always wanted, Daddy?” Yuzu asked sweetly. “For the three of us to go out on a late night ice cream trip together?”

“Well, of course, I love spending time with my little girls, but it just seems so sudden -” Isshin paused, and then grinned. “Ah, what am I saying, this is great!” He stood up, and turned to me. “Maki, it’s family bonding time -!”   
“No, it’s not,” I said, deadpan, as I would have in real life. “I’m not going.”

“You’re not?!”   
“You really thought I would?”

“We could always just kidnap you,” Isshin smirked, and something in his eyes was just a little too knowing as he watched my expression freeze momentarily.

“Tch. I’d like to see you try,” I covered, looking away and crossing my arms. I had chosen my outfit for tonight carefully, an off-white off-the-shoulder sweater and a pair of moss-green khaki pants.

I mentally prepared myself as my family left to head into the city with much fanfare, shutting the door behind them. It was time. Things would either work out for me, or they wouldn’t. 

I walked out onto my front step and closed my eyes, my hands out on either side of me in welcome. I took my reiatsu and threw as much of it out into the air as possible. I was doing the spiritual equivalent of doing everything but painting myself in neon and jumping around, shouting, “Look at me! Here I am!”

As I’d thought they would, the Hollows descended, floating around the Kurosaki family house. Just a few moments later, the dark haired girl with the robes appeared in my house, coming into existence suddenly beside me in the doorway. “You!” The girl looked frustrated, taken aback. “What are you doing here?”

This girl was fast, but I could be fast too. In a moment, I had the girl slammed against the wall, had a hand around her throat, and had shoved all my formidable reiatsu on top of her. “I want to become a Shinigami,” I answered, snarling.

“You cannot just become a Shinigami!” the girl choked out in frustration, struggling against my grip. “There is a whole training process! A culture behind it! Simply taking my powers would gain you little!”

“It would be enough. And what do you mean, culture?”

“I mean that Shinigami have another duty besides Hollow hunting, and it is to send the dead off to another world. The world where they live, where the dead live. The Soul Society,” said the girl urgently. 

I paused. “And if I took your powers...?”

“I would never be able to go back,” said the girl. “I would never be able to go back home.” And for a moment, she looked vulnerable, utterly lost.

But I had waited years for this chance -! I had to avenge my mother -! I closed in around the girl, who closed her eyes in preparation...

And as I looked at the Shinigami’s face, I suddenly realized I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t just deprive some innocent spirit of her home. I released the girl, spiritually and physically. The girl paused, her eyes flying open in surprise, and I looked away bitterly.

“Fine,” I said. “Take your power. And enjoy your home.”

The girl looked at me searchingly for a moment. Then she whispered something and waved a hand. All of a sudden, invisible binds wrapped around my wrists and ankles, which were pushed together. I fell over painfully onto the ground. I felt stupid, as if I had missed a perfect opportunity.

“A kido spell was necessary,” said the girl. “Just in case you wanted to try anything funny.” Then she leaped forward, and engaged the many Hollows floating around us in combat. 

I had to admit it: the girl was good. Her sword a whirl of silver, she made the air fly with Hollow blood, Hollow upon Hollow disintegrating into thin air. But the girl was getting wounded, too. At last, she was tossed back, falling beside me and bleeding heavily from several places.

“Damn,” she muttered, gasping for air.

“What is it?” I asked idly, staring up at the sky.

“I... My zanpakutoh, my sword, it has a spirit I can release to give me more power. But I didn’t release it because I didn’t want to hurt the sleeping humans around us. And now I’m too weak to - This is all your fault. If you hadn’t called so many here...” The girl glared over at me.

I sighed, still staring up in faux boredom at the sky. “So, as I thought, I’m going to die,” I guessed.

The girl paused in surprised. “As you thought...?”

“Why do you think my family’s not here?” I asked rhetorically. “I expected to die against a Hollow. Like my mother.”

The girl was silent for a moment. And then she said, of all things, “You don’t have to die. I could release you, and distract them while you run.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” I glared.

“I’m trying to save you!” said the girl in frustration. 

“I don’t run away from my own messes!” I snapped in return.

We glared at each other for a moment. 

“There is one other solution,” the girl allowed at last. 

I raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”

“You said you wanted to be a Shinigami.” The girl waved, smirking. “Here’s your chance.”

“You said I couldn’t be a competent Shinigami with no training!”   
“There aren’t very many left. And those are weak and injured. You cut through a couple with your zanpakutoh and it’s over.” The girl shrugged. “I’ll teach you the rest later.”

“But then you couldn’t go home...” I pointed out.

“At this rate, I’ll never be going home anyway,” said the girl seriously.

“You... you would really trust me with that?” I asked softly, touched.

The girl shrugged and looked up in exasperation at the sky. “Against my better judgement,” she said. “Now hurry up before I change my mind!”

And that way, I could still find and kill the Grand Fisher. I could even ask my father that question I’d been wanting to ask him about Mom...

“I don’t have to die?” I asked, just checking.

“Well.” The girl smirked. “Not technically.”

I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that.

-

About a minute later, I was standing up in front of the Shinigami, the zanpakutoh pointed at my heart.

“You’re sure this will work?” I asked nervously.

“No,” said the girl seriously. “But it’s our only shot.”

I nodded. “... My name is Kurosaki Maki,” I offered after a moment.

For the first time, the Shinigami smiled, a soft, glowing, genuine smile. “Kuchiki Rukia,” she returned. “Nice to meet you.”

And then she plunged the zanpakutoh through my heart.

-

I felt an incredible rush, the biggest rush I had ever experienced. I was suddenly one with my power in the desire to want more, to push past the boundaries and be free. And that was what the sword promised. The sword promised freedom. 

My power pulsed down the sword, shoved on top of Rukia’s and did what it almost had earlier. Held it down -- Rukia’s was so much smaller -- sucking and sucking away at the delicious power and energy until there was no more left.

My power was bubbling now, bubbling over my body, my body straining, breaking, and I screamed as my power pushed past all the limits and exploded outward, my soul separating cleanly from my body. I was floating for just a moment in the ether, as my lone spirit reformed into a new makeup, and I was pure power, and pure ecstasy.

-

When I could see again, the world was different. I was in a different position. I realized I was floating in the center of the Hollows. I wore the black robes of a Shinigami, in place of my clothes. I was holding in my hands the most massive katana I had ever seen, at least three times the normal size.

I looked around at the Hollows, and then I moved, and they moved, and in seconds the fight was over. My reiatsu energy was different, tighter and more agile, and it softened the blows for me and made me faster, my vision clearer.

And Kurosaki Maki had been deadly enough in life.

With perfect, slight movements, I dodged all the blows; in perfect kendo swings, I cleaved through all the Hollows in seconds. And then I was alone, uninjured. Floating there, the air somehow supporting me. 

Then my power shivered, growing larger and larger, still shifting, changing, and it overwhelmed my spiritual body. Nausea hit me, hard and strong, and I began shivering and shaking. I lost my balance and fell down, down, toward the earth below. I saw the ground coming up faster and faster. I could do nothing to stop it -

“Maki!”

Rukia appeared below me and I just hit Rukia’s arms before I passed out.


	3. Chapter Three

3.

I was walking Rukia through the halls of Karakura High toward her new classroom -- my classroom. Rukia was in a false body, dressed like a Karakura High student. As always, she looked exquisite and delicate, with long legs and a small frame, an art that was utterly lost on me, as tall as I was, as well as being lost on most of my friends.

“So it’s called a gigai?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s a false body made for Shinigami in times of emergencies.”

“Where’d you get one?”   
“From a contact,” said Rukia evasively.

“A legal contact?” I asked slyly.

“Well. Not exactly.” Rukia was prim. She cleared her throat and looked away, embarrassed.

I grinned and kicked Rukia in the butt. “You little rebel.”

“Uff! Yes. Well.” Rukia smiled, still looking away. “It will be very strange,” she admitted after a moment, “trying to find my way in the living world.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll help you out. Follow me.” Feel mentor-ish, which was a nice feeling, I led Rukia into the correct classroom and to the place where all my girlfriends were seated. “Girls!” They all looked up curiously. “This is Kuchiki Rukia. She’s a distant cousin and she’s moving here. She’s going to sit with us today, alright?”

“I didn’t know you had any cousins,” said Orihime in surprise, curious.

“Like I said. Distant,” I said firmly. Then I turned to Rukia and added, pointing, “From the left. That’s Honshou Chizuru -- obnoxious blatant lesbian.”

“And proud of it!” said a girl with glasses, raising a fist.

“Ogawa Michiru -- shy, sweet, and artsy.”

A girl with a barrette smiled and waved a little, her shoulders curled.

“Kunieda Ryou -- the coldest, bitchiest, most book obsessed girl in school besides me. Track superstar extraordinaire.”

“I always knew you liked me, Maki,” said a girl with her face hidden behind long dark hair, smirking.

“Natsui Mahana -- knows everything about everyone. Out there and proud of it.”

“You know it.” A girl with messy hair and an unbuttoned shirt grinned.

“Inoue Orihime -- daydreamy and compassionate. Eccentric cook. The first of the only two girls who can pull me into dorky dancing levels of silliness.”

“Nice to meet you!” said Orihime, pretty and curvy with long red hair, brightly.

“Arisawa Tatsuki -- my first childhood friend. The only girl in Karakura who can beat the shit out of me. A total tomboy. The second of the only two girls who can pull me into dorky dancing levels of silliness.”

Tatsuki, with dark eye makeup and a black pixie cut, gave a careless little wave.

“And we have another friend, but she’s in a different class. Asano Mizuho. We met her through kendo. You might see her around -- tall, ponytail? She’s tough and aggressive. Her little brother’s in this class, but he’s tried to stick his hand up my skirt too many times for me to really like him. I think I once threatened to rip his hand off.”

“You don’t remember?” Rukia asked dubiously.

I shrugged. “I threaten to rip a lot of people’s hands off.”

“Keigo deserves it. I regularly punch him in the face,” Tatsuki added matter of factly.

“Yeah, but that, I’ve never gotten,” said Mahana. “I mean, you punch Chizuru in the face all the time for trying to flirt with Orihime, and we’re friends with her.”

“Yes,” said Chizuru, as if this were patently obvious, “but I’m a girl.”

“Exactly,” I said decisively. I was the final authority on these sorts of things. “So, see?” I turned to Rukia. “Not that scary.” I waved a hand. “Pull up a seat, class is just about to start.”

Rukia sat next to me and I helped her through all the lessons. I most severely would not play tic tac toe and make paper airplanes like Rukia wanted to do -- that was where I drew the line. I was a perfectionist, and I would not condone purposeful imperfection. (Rukia teased me about this, and I kicked her underneath our desks.) But I did walk Rukia through where we were in each class so she wasn’t completely lost.

“Think of it as a way to study a foreign culture,” I told Rukia, in response to Rukia’s complaint that she’d never have to use any of this. “Besides, depending on how long you’re here, you just might.”

“Fine. But I get to be the teacher later,” Rukia promised. “We have to start you on Shinigami duties -- performing Konsoh on ghosts, and destroying Hollows.”

-

“Dad -- did Mom have the Sight?” 

Dad looked around incredulously in his office. I was standing in the doorway, my expression serious. I’d just blindsided him with the question.

“No, of course not, you know that.” Dad smiled, but he seemed almost nervous. “Why?”

I sighed, and went out on a hunch. If any adult with strong reiatsu lived, I guessed, they would probably be able to see Hollows. And I had to have gotten my strong reiatsu from somewhere. “Dad, I know,” I said. “About reiatsu. About Hollows. About Shinigami. About everything.

“I know Mom was shielding me from a Hollow that day when she died. And I deserve to know how she could see it.”

Dad relaxed, and all of a sudden he seemed tired -- drained. “Your sisters know, too, don’t they?” he guessed heavily.

I just nodded.

Dad put a hand over his face, and looked away, thinking. “This doesn’t go outside this office,” he said at last. “Not to your new Shinigami friend. Not even to your sisters.” 

I immediately closed the office door and sat down across from my father. “Yuzu and Karin are playing a loud video game up in their room,” I said. “Rukia left just a while ago -- she’s sleeping in my closet, but she went off somewhere else on Shinigami business. She’s still trying to get things settled here, which is why I asked you now.”

“.. Okay,” said Dad, beginning his story. “First, you need to know how the Soul Society is set up. Most of the Soul Society is made up of poor little feudal-era villages, separated into districts. They fan out in a circle. The farther away you get from the center of the circle, the poorer the villages get. This is where most souls are cycled through on their way in between lives. New souls are sometimes born into this system, between commoners. Commoners are seen as just a little better than humans, who are the lowest.

“In the center of the circle is a whole separate city -- a pristine and wealthy white city called the Seireitei. It is full of new souls, because here is an ingrained nobility. No souls cycle through here, it’s all birth based on blood. The nobles are seen as the best. There are -- or, well, there were -- five noble houses. In addition to the nobility, Shinigami also live here. The only way to get into the Seireitei, besides the luck of new birth, is to have reiatsu and become a Shinigami through the Shino Academy, which is also based in Seireitei. A council, the Central 46, governs the Seireitei, and the rest of Soul Society, which is called the Rukongai.”

“Dad -- how do you know all this?” I asked wonderingly.

“Because,” said Dad, smiling painfully, “I’m from there.

“I was born Shiba Isshin, an heir to one of the five noble houses. I became a Shinigami captain, the highest rank there is after commander of the Shinigami forces. I had it all. I had everything. And, I’ve got to admit, I was a terrible flirt. I thought I was the coolest guy around -- which I am, by the way. I went on my own to the living world on a mission and encountered a Hollow powerful enough that I wasn’t prepared for it. I was saved by, of all people, a human. A Quincy girl.

“The Quincy were humans with strong reiatsu who learned how to control their powers in life. They could obliterate Hollows from existence, so that even the Hollow’s soul particles disappeared. But this created unbalance in the universe, unbalance between the worlds. The collapse of both worlds loomed. The Shinigami, whose job it is to keep such balance, asked the Quincy to stop. The Quincy would not stop fighting Hollows, so they were obliterated by the Shinigami.

“A small group of Quincy put down their weapons and refused to fight, so they were spared and allowed to remain in the living world. The daughter of one of those Quincy was the girl who saved my life, who furthermore saved my life despite the fact that I was a Shinigami. Her name was Kurosaki Masaki.”

I had been somewhat prepared for it, but even then I felt a sort of wonder. Isshin smiled bittersweetly.

“A beautiful girl saves your life and you can’t just forget her. I returned to the Soul Society, but I couldn’t forget the girl. I went back in secret days later to visit her. It was a good thing I had -- she had been injured but not killed by the Hollow, and was now deep into a coma, going through the process of becoming a Hollow herself.

“You didn’t know? Hollows are lost souls. If souls are injured or left without a body long enough, they become Hollow monsters and must be decimated by Shinigami so their particles can be absorbed back into the fold of the universe, fresh for the creation of new souls.

“There was one process that would allow me to save her. In the process, both our powers would be sealed away and my soul would be irrevocably tied with hers. I still don’t have my powers back, in fact, and she’s been dead for years. Of course, I chose to save her, to be tied to her.

“It destroyed both our lives, actually. I could never return to the Soul Society. No one knew where I went -- I just... never came back. I was deemed a betrayer from the forces and my entire noble house was thrown from the Seireitei and banished to the Rukongai beyond in disgrace. My Captain’s seat was left empty for years before someone filled it -- Hitsugaya Toushiro, my unusually young third seat officer. Meanwhile, Masaki’s engagement to a fellow Quincy Archer was broken off, and her Quincy kin would no longer speak to her.

“But we were happy. I studied to be a doctor; we dated while I was going through training in college. Masaki was... different. She was tough, and smart, and level-headed, and funny, and she kept my ego from getting over inflated. We got married, and formed a little life for ourselves here in Tokyo, and we tried to pretend we were normal in the hopes that would make our children happy -- we hoped perhaps you guys could just have normal, happy lives. That’s why we never told you.

“Maybe that was silly.”

Dad looked away, and he still seemed happy and sad at the same time.

“Dad -- thank you.” I leaned forward, and put my hand over my father’s, touched. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Aww, don’t worry about it!” Dad sat back and tried to grin his problems away, as he often did, though it didn’t work -- not quite. “It makes for a great story, yeah? So that’s how you three have reiatsu. You’re the daughters of a disgraced noble Shinigami Captain and a rebel pacifist Quincy Archer. Pretty screwed up, huh?”   
“I’m proud of my parentage,” I said, lifting my chin defiantly.

Dad stopped in surprise, and then softened, and he smiled genuinely for the first time.

-

It was still my plan to avenge my mother.

On that note, I threw myself intensively into Shinigami training. Not just the basics, like how to perform a Konsoh ritual (sending a ghost to the other side) or how to attack a Hollow (by slaying it through the head) -- which I got fairly quickly, and did several times around Karakura for practice, following Rukia around on missions with her Shinigami phone alert system -- but the more complex stuff as well. Certain things, I already knew how to do -- stealth and how to erase my reiatsu signature, martial arts, kendo, kickboxing, and aim. But I needed help with others. 

The first matter of business was fairly easy to convince Rukia of. It made sense for me to know sensing, so we could better find Hollows in case Rukia’s phone alert system ever went dead. So Rukia walked me through the basics of how to sense the power around me, and I found that I was naturally very good at this. On my very first try, I got hundreds of white ribbons representing reiatsu signatures to float around me, and this was supposed to be very high level stuff. (The red ribbon was mine -- Shinigami power was always red.) 

From there, over the following days, Rukia taught me how to sense not only when I tried to, but automatically, without even consciously realizing I was sensing. It was fascinating, watching the world take on whole new dimensions. It was so... different, looking at the world through the eyes of one who could sense its energies. Everything had reiatsu -- even objects.

Speed, I could also rationalize away.

“You’re already faster anyway,” Rukia had protested.

“I know. But I could be even faster. Think about it. I’ve been trained in fighting for years. But fighting is so much faster once a person has reiatsu. I need my speed to keep up with my knowledge and strength,” I had pointed out.

So Rukia had taught me about Shinigami speed, which required reiatsu in two areas: first, the person channeled reiatsu into their bodies. Second, they made a path for themselves with reiatsu and then zipped there. To an ordinary person, it looked so fast that it seemed as if the fighter had disappeared from one place and rematerialized in another.

“It’s called shunpo,” Rukia began. “And I don’t even have it mastered, so don’t feel bad if you can’t -”

She’d stopped short. I had disappeared and then reappeared right before her.

“Like that?” I’d asked.

Rukia had stared. “And silent, too. That’s Captain-class level technique...” she whispered. And then she said: “What are you?” 

I remained unfazed. “I’m becoming stronger than you, aren’t I?” I’d asked.

Rukia had smirked, to my surprise. “In basic fighting,” she said. “But without kidou and without a zanpakutoh spirit, you remain hopelessly basic.”

“So teach me those things,” I said intently, coldly, my eyes narrowing.

“You have no need of them.” Rukia waved a hand and turned away. “Eventually, my power’s hold on you will fade, you will go back to being an ordinary living human, and I will regain my own powers. You will be an unusually talented beginning Shinigami, once you yourself die.” 

So I asked my Dad for help, there in the privacy of his office.

“Honey, I don’t have powers,” said my Dad, for once serious. “Remember?”

“But you remember how to do things. Dad, I’m incredibly powerful. I can feel it. I get things so easily. I can do this on my own,” I said with feeling. “I just need guidance.”

I wasn’t sure why, beyond the vengeance of my mother, this mattered so much to me. It just did.

“... Alright,” my father allowed at last, though he looked torn. And he began helping me train. 

First, he taught me how to meditate and try to get in contact with my zanpakutoh spirit.

“You need to learn its name. Once you do, you can call it out and your sword will transform into a power, a special power unique to you,” my father began, sitting me down cross legged on the floor and then kneeling beside me. And he spoke me through the first, basic meditative process. 

After a while, reaching farther and farther inside myself, I saw something appear in the blackness of my eyelids. It was a flickering flame -- charged with emotion, changeful, dangerous, potentially angry. Impossible to keep between one’s hands. I reached out for it, but it was like something was blocking me. I heard a sound like a voice, but it was oddly muffled. The flame rippled before me, a clear shield before it.

I opened my eyes, frustrated. “I can’t reach the spirit,” I said. “Something’s blocking me.”

“Keep trying,” said my father. “You’re trying to fit years of training into a matter of weeks. You’re good, but you’re not that good. Besides, you may not be able to reach your true power through the form of Rukia’s.”

I kept trying anyway.

The other thing I wanted to learn was kido spells. My father was invaluable here. He said the Shiba had unusually hard to control reiatsu, but also unusual spell power, and this should be magnified in me. He took me through a special exercise by making me stand up, put out my hands, close my eyes, mold reiatsu, and then concentrate on a black circle, and on falling further and further into the circle...

At last, he tapped me and the reiatsu immediately fazed out. I opened my eyes, annoyed. “Hey, why did you -?”

“Your circle of reiatsu was the size of the whole room. It should only have been as large as your body,” said Isshin seriously. “If we want to do this further, we’re going to need to go somewhere special. I have a place in mind -”

“I know what we can do,” I interrupted him. And I took him out to the grassy field where Erizawa had done my final stealth test.

There, he taught me kido spells. I bound him, temporarily paralyzed him, healed his cuts and bruises, and created a lot of very massive explosions. My father had been right. My spell power was hard to control and quite humongous. And, in a feat worthy of a Quincy, I could do spells from within my physical body as well.

Once, I did a spell so big it lifted us both off our feet and shoved us away, skidding on the ground, our ears ringing. We stared at the scorched patch of ground, looked at each other -- and then started laughing incredulously.

I promised myself to try not to use my new kido spells around Rukia, who I couldn’t exactly explain them to.

Karin and Yuzu were frustrated during this part of things.

“We want to learn alongside you, like we always have -!” said Karin, scowling and fiery. Yuzu looked sad and worried.

I placed a hand on each of their heads. “You’re not dead and you don’t have Shinigami power,” I said. “You’re just going to have to have faith in me. I’m going to try to use this power to find the Grand Fisher and avenge Mom.”

-

One night, I waited until Rukia was asleep in the closet beside me. Then I folded all my great power inside myself, and put my reiatsu signature out like a lid over a candle flame. I stood, walked over silently, stuck my hand in the closet door, and pulled out Rukia’s red glove -- the same one she always used to press against me and put me into Shinigami mode. 

I put on the glove, got back in bed, shoved it against myself, and out popped my soul. My body slumped over, the gloved hand hidden underneath the blanket. I stood, in my Shinigami robes, and smoothly walked through my bedroom wall and outside onto an air level.

Then I began running, stealthy, unseen and unsensed. I searched out a Hollow’s signature, and followed it unnoticed, a ways away from it all the time, through Tokyo, until at last I felt it begin to disappear. It was leaving, I knew, to return to Hueco Mundo, the space between worlds -- the place Rukia had told me about.

I shunpo’d forward suddenly, grabbed onto it, and then I felt a strange electricity and when I looked up I knew I was in another realm altogether. I had traveled with it to Hueco Mundo, the world of Hollow souls. It was a long, barren, shadowy desert, lit by a strange, cold moon.

The Hollow whirled around, reaching claws out for me, and I slashed right through it neatly so it disappeared. Then I stood, looking around myself. I was alone, or seemed to be.

I moved across the desert sands, creeping around behind sand dunes, on high alert. I sensed out the nearest bunch of Hollows, and tracked them half the night across the vast desert plains, my unusually large katana (indicative of unusually great reiatsu) my trusty companion. 

At last, one of the Hollows stopped, reached its head up to sense the air. “We are being followed...” it whispered.

I flew out from my hiding place, my sword flashing as I swung it. I cut through most of the Hollows neatly, but the last one was tougher and got in a few good hits. It had long, reaching tentacles that, when I or my sword came into contact with them, sucked away at my reiatsu. What I ended up having to do was jump and dodge in between them, reach a hand out, and do a kido spell.

The Hollow exploded from the inside, black blood littering the moonlit sands. Breathing hard, I walked over its entrails to the remnants of its dying, disintegrating head.

“Where is the Grand Fisher?” I hissed.

“Go to hell... mad Shinigami...” it whispered as it lay dying.

“Where are the powerful Hollows?!” I stabbed my sword through its head, entering its brain slowly...

The Hollow started screeching. “Farther in!” it cried. “Toward the center of Hueco Mundo...”

I removed my sword, taking this in, assessing. “Die in peace,” I said at last, reserved. I stabbed my sword downward right through the Hollow’s head. With a terrible sound, it died and disintegrated, being absorbed back into the fold.

Light was dawning over Hueco Mundo. I should find someone to take me back. 

I found another Hollow, snuck up on it, leapt on it, forced it sideways on a one-way trip, and rode back to Tokyo. Once there, I turned right around and slashed through the Hollow, killing it one stroke. Then I snuck back to my body, and put the red glove away.

I began to do this many nights, searching, searching for the Grand Fisher. Going further toward the center and fighting stronger and stronger Hollows every time. I tried to make sure nobody in the living world noticed the bags under her eyes, the strange scars growing on my soul’s form. 

No one knew. No one except my sisters, who worried for me.


	4. Chapter Four

4.

Rukia stuck to me a lot as I taught her about the living world.

Food was exceptionally rare in the Soul Society. Rukia had never had much contact with it. So I took her to the supermarket and out to restaurants, introducing her to new dishes, drinks, and spices. Rukia showed a wide-eyed, childish kind of awe when encountering new foods that, if I were honest with myself -- which I wasn’t -- I would admit was a little adorable.

“You’re very... enthusiastic about food,” I pointed out once, curious in a reserved, veiled sort of way.

“Where I grew up, nobody ate at all,” Rukia explained, chewing. She looked up and shrugged when I stared. “I’ve been dead since infancy. I grew up in a place in Soul Society called the Rukongai, in a very poor village. Nobody there ate. They didn’t need to, of course, only people with reiatsu need food after death. So I just went hungry all the time.”

“So it must have been different -- being a Shinigami,” I guessed.

“Oh, yes. Where the Shinigami live, there are richly adorned shops, there is wealth and plenty. I am very lucky. You seem rather curious about me,” Rukia added, smirking.

I looked away uncomfortably. “It’s natural,” I said after a moment, “to be curious about someone who grew up in such a different place.”

“... Perhaps,” Rukia allowed.

I also taught Rukia other things. Everything was very old fashioned where Rukia was from -- conversation was formal as well as language, and it was still customary there to do things like bow and curtsy. I taught Rukia how to be casual -- or tried to.

“None of this makes any sense,” Rukia said once in frustration. 

“Well -- I’m not exactly a very casual person myself,” I sighed in exasperation. “It would be so much easier if I could bring in Tatsuki, or Orihime, or even my sisters -”

“No,” said Rukia sternly. “No one else must know of the Shinigami. We try to minimize information among the living as much as possible.”

Of course, Rukia didn’t know that my entire family already knew anyway. I asked them for help in private, and after that “lessons” with Rukia went a little easier.

I noticed certain habits in Rukia after a while -- that Rukia would try to separate herself from the throng whenever my friends arrived, or that she would simply steal Yuzu’s clothes for economy instead of fashion. I tried to open Rukia up a little. It was strange, being the open and extroverted one for once. I brought Rukia into my circle of friends until Rukia could converse with them more warmly and comfortably. I also spent an afternoon once and took Rukia out shopping for clothes with her emergency stipend money from the Shinigami.

“This is not an emergency,” Rukia protested even as she went along with it.

“You need to be able to blend in for your continued survival and the Shinigamis’ secrecy,” I countered dismissively. “Just follow me.” 

It was fun, dressing up Rukia in living world clothes. Rukia looked great in the most amazing colors -- deep blacks and snow whites, vivid jewel-like colors. She also preferred loose clothing, which included lots of dresses and skirts and other things I wouldn’t normally buy.

I also taught Rukia the ins and outs of advertising. This was necessary; once Rukia pointed at a coffee shop and said in awe, “Wow, they serve the best coffee in the world!” I had to explain to her that the coffee shop was just trying to make itself look good; she got indignant and said she thought that was very unethical. There were no corporations or advertising companies in Rukia’s world; there were, at most, small individual businesses who put product-based advertisements in their front windows. I taught her how to be a skeptic, which was necessary in a 21st century post-industrial world. 

So even when we weren’t out doing Shinigami training, and Rukia wasn’t leading me around town on Hollow decimating or soul burial missions, we still spent a lot of time together. 

One night, I awoke to sounds coming from the closet. I lay still in the dark for a few seconds, and realized Rukia was having a nightmare. Torn, I tried to figure out what to do. After a moment, I stood up and padded silently over to the closet. I opened it slowly, carefully, picked Rukia up, and moved very slowly so as not to wake her as I carried her over to my own bed. Then I got into bed beside her, and tried to go back to sleep. After a few moments, I felt Rukia sling a warm arm around my side and curl instinctively toward me, and I heard the sounds of the nightmares ease.

I smiled, now that there was no one around to see it.

Neither of us ever mentioned the incident again.

-

I also took Rukia on a five-day run I called “the culture shopping tour.” We went to movies, a concert, an art gallery, and a political rally. Cuisine, language, custom, fashion, friends, economics, art, movies, music, and politics -- Rukia was as caught up as she could be on the comings and goings of the living world.

“My work here is done,” I said, deadpan, walking beside an excited Rukia, who was still wearing her concert t-shirt. The concert had been a local afternoon festival, so as we were walking back toward my house it was sunset. 

“That was so cool; I can’t believe you took me to it!” Rukia was saying excitedly. “Hey, hey, did you hear that? I just used ‘cool’ in a sentence!”

“Very good,” I said, dryly amused, looking out over the city. “You can borrow some of my literature and philosophy and that completes your education. Well, besides history, I guess. But that stuff we learn at school.”

“Essays are boring,” Rukia declared.

“Said every secondary school student ever,” I added.

Just as we went to cross the next road, we saw Inoue Orihime up ahead, crossing the street and carrying groceries.

“Hey, Orihime -!” I called out, vaguely curious; Orihime turned around and then a car rammed right into her. She went flying. My eyes widened. The car was already driving past Orihime and away -- the asshole was going to attempt a hit and run!

I took out a band-themed keychain and threw it at the driver’s side window. With perfect aim, it slammed through the window with a shatter of breaking glass and hit the man in the temple. He slumped over and his car slammed into the nearest streetlight. 

I strolled calmly over, ignoring Rukia’s stare, and ducked my head through the window. The man was stirring, just coming to; I picked my keychain out of his lap and gave a big, false smile as the man did a double-take, looking me over.

He eyed the keychain in my hand and glared. “I could have you arrested for assault!”   
“Not without admitting you attempted a hit and run.” I smirked. “Stop next time, eh, asshole?”

I tapped the roof of the car as I stood straight and walked back over to Orihime.

“You totaled that man’s car!” Orihime was wailing. She was standing and was apparently alright. 

“He had it coming to him,” I said casually. 

“No wonder Keigo and Mizuiro are so frightened of you,” said Orihime in exasperation.

“I’ll take the compliment,” I replied. “Now, are you okay?” I looked Orihime over, and paused when I saw a Hollow-claw shaped bruise on her leg. It was almost as if if a Hollow had grabbed her and shoved her in front of the car.

It was probably nothing, considering we hadn’t seen a Hollow -- then again, it could have been a new one. Those were supposed to be trickier. And Orihime’s brother had died just a few years ago. I didn’t think I’d performed the Konsoh ritual on him yet.

Orihime’s older brother, who raised her, was hit by a car while crossing the street a few years ago. Orihime had to drag his body to the Kurosaki resident hospital. Orihime and I had just become friends in middle school, and I had been holding a crying Orihime as her brother flatlined in the next room. It was one of the more infuriating and helpless memories of my life.

So, could Orihime’s brother’s Hollow be stalking her? Possibly.

Orihime noticed my stare and misinterpreted it. “Oh, I’m fine,” she said, smiling. “Don’t worry about me.” Rukia had knelt down to glare intently at the bruise. The same sort of thought must have occurred to her.

I looked up firmly. “I don’t believe you,” I said decisively, grabbing Orihime’s arm and yanking her back toward her apartment. “Let’s go, you. I’m walking you home. Coming, Rukia?”

Despite Orihime’s protests, Rukia followed behind us, quiet, still eyeing the bruise.

-

I stuck around Orihime protectively over the next few days. I shadowed her to the bathroom between classes and kept her busy after school was over, studying with her or taking her to the movies. Orihime was happy but confused over the sudden bout of interest.

“It’s just that you’ve been focusing a lot on Rukia-san over the past couple of weeks,” she said.

“Well, of course, I had to get her settled. But I don’t forget my friends,” I replied, business like.

Orihime paused, and then smiled. “Of course,” she said.

Rukia tagged along, keeping close tabs on “Inoue-san” over the next few days. She’d asked me once about Orihime’s family. 

“She had an older brother who died a few years ago,” I said, faux casual. Rukia said nothing further on the subject, but I knew she was thinking of Orihime’s brother becoming a Hollow.

One night, Tatsuki came over to Orihime’s apartment where I was hanging out. (Rukia wasn’t there.) Tatsuki said she’d brought some food over and decided we’d make it a “girl’s night.” We all pulled out sleeping bags and sat on the floor, talking and eating junk food. Orihime put on loud music. I got out some chocolate-scented nail polish and we all did our nails together.

“That guy’s hot.”

“He’s alright.”

“Ooh -! Turned down by the great Kurosaki Maki!” Tatsuki grinned. “That’s cold.”

“Well, it’s true. He’s alright.” I rolled her eyes.

“You won’t accept anyone who doesn’t have the looks of a god,” said Orihime cheerfully. “Maki-san, you’re never going to find somebody.”

“Says you two. I don’t see either of you on any hot dates,” I argued playfully.

“Oh! Oh!” Tatsuki was in throes of glee. She stood up. “You did not just say that! Right here and now! You and me! Throw-down!”

I stood, smirking, and we circled each other. It was all play, all in good fun. Orihime stood up decisively. “I’ll make some peanut butter and banana sandwiches for after you’re done!”

“That -- actually sounds delicious,” I admitted.

“Yeah. Weird,” said Tatsuki. “Is the apocalypse nigh?”

“You’re both so mean to me,” Orihime pouted.

“The great Arisawa Tatsuki feints to the left. She feints to the right. This is it, the final in the nationals karate tournament, and it’s just Arisawa and Kurosaki on the mat,” Tatsuki muttered, smirking.

“Watch out, Tatsuki, there’s a gun behind you!” Orihime gasped suddenly.

Tatsuki whirled around, and then slumped. “Orihime...”

“Sorry,” said Orihime apologetically. “I was daydreaming again.”

Just then, I rammed into Tatsuki and threw her to the ground while she was distracted.

“That did not count! That did not count!”   
“Are you kidding me?! That totally counted!”

We ate our peanut butter and banana sandwiches and waited for our nails to dry. Just then, Mahana and Chizuru called. Mahana talked our ear off for ten minutes about some guy and some girl’s relationship problems, and then Chizuru finally got around to what they wanted to talk about.

“Cutie Hime-chan! We’re throwing a party and you should totally come over!”   
“Oh goodie!” said Orihime sincerely.

“Oh goodie,” I repeated sarcastically.

“Don’t be such a downer, Maki! Alright, you less cute girls can come too, I guess,” said Chizuru. 

“Hey, don’t include me in that! What’d I do? And stop flirting with Orihime!” Tatsuki snapped.

I suddenly saw the perfect opportunity. “Orihime, I’ll take your trash out since we both messed up your apartment, and then we can all go. Sound good?”

“Okay,” said Orihime, slightly nonplussed.

I got the trash together and carried it out to the alley behind the apartment complex. There it was, hovering near the complex: the Hollow. 

“Hey, asshole!” I walked right up to it and shoved my reiatsu at it. “Come and get me!”

The Hollow flew forward, howling, and it hit my body with tremendous and painful force. As planned, it knocked my soul clean out. I stood and put my giant sword up to its teeth, gritting my own and pushing it backward with effort. 

Just then, I heard shouts behind me and in a blind panic I realized that Tatsuki and Orihime were running out toward my prone physical form. The Hollow lashed out with a claw and tossed them away. They screamed -- they couldn’t see what was hitting them.

I got in between my friends and the Hollow, cutting through its tail, cutting off its claw -- it spit acid at me! acid! shit! -- I dropped the sword. Kicked out at the Hollow’s head with reiatsu, grabbed the sword back up, and then cut through its head and form. It took three clean strokes. It took some doing, but I got there in the end. 

I climbed back into my body and blinked my eyes open. There would be a nice bruise on my chest where the Hollow had hit me, but that was no big deal. 

Tatsuki and Orihime were just getting to their feet. They rushed over to me as I sat up.

“Maki!”

“What’s going on -?!”   
They both sounded terrified.

“Don’t worry, it’s gone,” I breathed. “Listen, you guys can’t tell anyone about this. You hear me? Anyone. Please,” I added, a rare word coming from my mouth. 

Tatsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“Yes,” I said, “and I can’t explain it right now.”

Tatsuki and Orihime looked at me, frustrated. After a moment, they nodded.

“Alright,” said Orihime. “We’ll keep your secret.”

-

I was walking with my group of friends off the school grounds one afternoon a few days later, and we passed by Mizuho’s little brother and his friend Mizuiro. Usually, Keigo would call out something ridiculous and flirtatious, but today he and Mizuiro had their heads bent. They were talking furiously in concerned tones, frowning. 

“What’s up with them?” I asked idly. “The dynamic duo don’t look too happy, do they?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Mahana asked in surprise. “Their friend Yasutora Sado’s gone missing. Big half-Mexican guy? Really quiet and stoic? Tattoo? In our class? He’s not at his apartment or with any of his older musician friends. No one’s seen him in days.”

“People think something’s happened to him,” said Ryo seriously. “I mean, we don’t exactly live in the most crime-free area of Japan.”

“Can you imagine something awful like that happening?” Michiru asked sadly. “And poor Sado-kun doesn’t have any family to worry about him either. He’s like you, Orihime-chan. No surviving relatives, lives on his own.”

“That’s awful,” Orihime agreed sympathetically.

“Did any of Yasutora-san’s relatives die here or recently?” Rukia asked seriously. Sometimes I had to admire her single-minded focus on the duties of a Shinigami. 

“Nah. His parents died when he was a little kid. He lived with his grandfather for a while in Mexico. Grandfather died. He moved back to Japan and now he’s on his own. Wherever he is.”

Rukia and I walked the rest of the way home alone, after veering off away from our friends. “How do you guys manage all those people from all those different countries all massing together in one place?” I asked curiously, thinking about it.

“All languages sound the same in the Soul Society,” said Rukia. “Everyone thinks everyone else is speaking their language.”

“So technically, your name isn’t really even Rukia. It’s a name from whatever your native language was when you were a baby.” 

“Correct.”

Rukia parted with me close to home. (She always climbed the tree by my bedroom window and snuck in that way.) I entered the house, only to find it in complete pandemonium. My father and sisters were running back and forth between the house and the hospital clinic attached to it.

“Maki, got your nursing uniform on and help us!” my father barked on his way by.

All three of Isshin’s daughters sometimes helped him with nursing duties. I tied my hat and apron on over my bun and school uniform, and ran into the hospital room, only to find a bloody Yasutora Sado lying there limply. 

“What happened?” I asked, staring, genuinely caught off guard.

“His body was found dumped somewhere,” said Yuzu. “There’s evidence of a car accident on his body and there are deep, bloody claw marks on his back.”

“We’re trying to save his life!” my Dad said urgently, still in panic mode. “Now hurry up -!”

We attached him to machines and tried to resuscitate him, but it was no go. It was like Sado was already dead. And when I focused, I could sense Hollow reiatsu around the area of his wound. I reached out with my senses -- Sado’s soul was gone. Like it had never been there in the first place.

Sado was eaten by a Hollow.

Strangely shaken, I at last sat back, wiping the blood off my hands on my apron. There was a defeated pause for a moment as everyone stared at Sado’s body.

“It was a Hollow,” I said after a while. Yuzu and Karin looked at Dad in alarm, but I said, “Don’t worry. He knows. I told him.”

“It does carry all the signs,” Dad admitted.

“Are you sure?” Karin asked.

I nodded. “Positive. Now the question is... where did it go? And why hasn’t Rukia gotten an alert about it?”

“A lot of Hollows hide in Hueco Mundo when they’re not out hunting souls,” said Dad seriously. “The sensors don’t reach there.”

“So how are we going to get it to come out so I can destroy it?” I asked, nonplussed.

“The real question you should be asking yourself right about now,” said my father, “is why was it after Sado-kun, who never displayed any soul power?”

-

“Was Sado-kun killed by one of those monsters you’re always fighting?” I turned around in surprise. Tatsuki and Orihime were standing there in front of the schoolyard, looking deadly serious.

“You’ve been seeing me...?” I began.

“Ever since that night, we’ve started to see dead people and those monsters, and you fighting them. We figured Rukia came to help you fight them.” Tatsuki shrugged. “So we never said anything about it. Maki, what’s going on?”

I explained the basics to them.

“So Sado’s soul was eaten by one of those... weird spirit creatures?” Tatsuki wrinkled her nose. 

“Yes. And I have to figure out why it was after him.”

“Why don’t you talk to Keigo and Mizuiro. They knew him best,” Tatsuki pointed out.

“Right, I think I’ll have to do that. Thanks, you guys.” I went to walk away.

“Good luck, Maki-chan,” said Orihime after me.

-

I went up to Rukia, who looked as serious as I felt. She, too, had sensed the Hollow in Sado’s wound from all the way up in my room.

“We have to talk to Sado’s friends,” I said.

I went up to Keigo and Mizuiro that day at lunch. Rukia was beside me. They looked downcast and shaken.

“I was there in the hospital at his announced time of death,” I admitted, sitting down next to them. “My Dad was the doctor in charge. Guys, was Yasutora-san in any kind of trouble?”

“No,” said Keigo, shaking his head. “That’s the weird thing. Sado was the very picture of the gentle giant. No one had any problems with him at all.”

“It was the parakeet,” muttered Mizuiro. I raised an eyebrow in his direction and he elaborated, “Sado took on this cursed parakeet as a pet. Everyone who owns the bird ends up dead. Everyone.”

“Was this parakeet unusually intelligent?” Rukia asked, eyes narrowing. “Unusually fluent in human language?” At least she knew where to go with this, because I sure didn’t.

“Yeah, now that you mention it...” said Keigo slowly, thinking back.

We huddled close to each other a ways away from Keigo and Mizuiro.

“There’s a ghost in the bird. A Hollow’s after it,” said Rukia urgently. “Maki, we need to find that bird.”

“Well, first stop,” I said, “Sado’s apartment.” 

It wasn’t like breaking and entering was the first crime I had ever committed.


	5. Chapter Five

5\. 

Rukia stood guard, watching for passing people, as I picked the lock of Sado’s apartment door with one of my hair needles. We had waited a couple of days just in case the police wanted to check Sado’s place. But when we opened the door, everything looked untouched. We moved past the takeout containers in the trash, past the musical instruments and intricate graffiti art hanging from the walls, past the worn out couch.

At last, in Sado’s room, we found what we were looking for. “There’s the bird!” I called out, and Rukia hurried into the room.

The parakeet sat calmly in its cage on the bedside table. “Hello. I’m Shibata Yuuichi,” it chirped pleasantly. “What’s your name?”

I could feel it inside the bird -- a ghost spirit. The ghost of a boy.

“Why is a Hollow after you?” I asked brusquely, blunt.

“Maki,” Rukia muttered.

“What? Might as well get to the point. Why’s a Hollow after you, kid?”

Yuuichi looked down. “My mother was murdered by a serial killer,” he admitted. “I tripped the killer and he fell to his death. His Hollow soul prayed on mine until I died. He told me he was hiding my mother from me, and that I could only get her back if I let him follow me around and chase after me, killing souls that wandered into our path.”

My fists clenched. I was angry -- angry at the Hollow.

“Your mother is probably in the Soul Society,” said Rukia, not admitting to the possibility that Yuuichi’s mother’s soul had been eaten. “We can send you there. The Hollow’s not hiding anything from you at all.”

“What? So -- so it was all for nothing?” The boy’s eyes widened, heartbreak clear within them.

I grabbed Rukia’s red glove and out popped my soul. I walked up to the bird, took out my zanpakutoh, and stuck the hilt into the bird’s head. The soul of a boy with messy brown curls came out, dissolving into blue as he disappeared over to the spirit world.

“Be careful,” he said in concern as he faded away. “That Hollow will come after you, and he’s already killed two other Shinigami.”

“Oh,” I said darkly, “I know he’ll come after me. In fact, I’m counting on it.”

Beating the shit out of assholes was pretty high on my list of favorite things to do.

-

We took up Yuuchi’s birdcage, with his reiatsu residue on it, and we started walking. I lead Rukia around the main section of town, down by the river and the docks, where no one was. We traipsed through abandoned roadways, staying close to the water. 

At last, we saw, we sensed, the great looming shadow of a Hollow creep by the nearest warehouse and peer out around the corner at us. I smirked, in full Shinigami regalia, and lifted up the cage, rattling it around with my eyes narrowed smugly.

The Hollow’s eyes widened and it growled. “You stole my prey!” He lunged himself at me in fury.

I ran toward the Hollow, unsheathing my sword, and it shot energy beams from its mouth as we moved toward each other. I dodged each energy shot and kept running toward it. Then the Hollow paused, and spit leeches at me.

The big, ugly, squelchy purple leeches stuck to my skin and my hair. I could feel them siphoning off my reiatsu, sucking away at me, and then the Hollow rattled its tongue and they all exploded.

“Maki!” Rukia called out, as pain blazed white-hot through several parts of my body for a moment, leaving leaking blood behind. I winced, stumbling a little. The Hollow was chuckling, and that was really what made me see red.

I reminded myself: Fighting a serial killer. No time for pain.

I considered my options. I had to get rid of that tongue. I could do a kido spell, but Rukia was standing right there and that would raise some uncomfortable questions. 

So instead, I made a trail for myself and zipped there in front of the Hollow, in shunpo. I stuck my sword straight through the Hollow’s tongue, and it screamed out in pain; I wriggled the sword a little, my face twisted in fury, and relished the Hollow’s moans of pain.

Then another energy beam suddenly shot from its mouth and knocked my sword away. Shit!

I had gotten cocky and I nearly paid for it dearly. While I was unguarded, the Hollow lunged itself at me. I dodged and punched it sideways in a karate move, older instincts coming to the fore, and then I grabbed up sword and cut it straight through the Hollow. 

Instead of the Hollow dissipating, like with Orihime’s brother, however, a pair of gates manned by bandaged skeletons opened up to let the Hollow through. It was sucked into a pit of hellfire. The doors closed and in a burst of heat, the doors were gone.

“The zanpakutoh can only wash away sins that were done in death,” Rukia explained, as I was standing there staring. “Inoue-san’s brother might have been a good person in life, but that serial killer definitely wasn’t.”

So that was the other way souls were taken out of the rotation between Soul Society and the world of the living: Some were eaten by or became Hollows. Others were locked up in Hell.

-

Rukia started acting really weirdly about a week later. She kept disappearing off by herself, late at night and early in the morning. I kept tabs on her by sensing out her signature, so I wasn’t too worried, but it was distinctly odd. 

I finally found out what was worrying her one day at school.

We were out in the courtyard at break and she threw something at me called “Soul Candy.” It was a little pez dispenser with pills inside. 

“I take it these aren’t simple sugar pills,” I supposed dryly. “Is that what’s been worrying you lately?”

“I had to reach my contact,” said Rukia evasively. “I was having some... physical difficulties.” She looked away delicately.

“What, like you were sick?” I asked, nonplussed.

“Like my gigai was running out of fuel and disconnecting from my soul,” said Rukia flatly, still looking away.

“... Oh.” I had no idea what to say to that. “But you fixed it, right?” I asked at last, awkwardly.

Rukia smiled over at me with effort. “Of course,” she replied. I had the feeling I wasn’t getting the full story. “Now, as to the Soul Candy. Those are Gikongan -- substitute soul pills. Swallow that capsule and it will force your soul out of your body, and replace it with a ‘false’ soul, who was specifically created to be pleasant and agreeable. 

“So in case I’m ever not there, you can still fight Hollows effectively. You see?”

“Well, that’s morbid,” I said, and Rukia scowled. “Still, I’ve got to admit, it sounds a damn sight better than my previous tactic, which was just ‘attack the Hollow and hope it pops my soul out without killing me’.”

“Maki, that is not proper Hollow killing technique!” Rukia’s eyes had widened.

I shrugged, still examining the Soul Candy curiously. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re crazy?” Rukia asked.

I smirked. “Once or twice. Now, why does it say ‘soul candy’?”

“The Shinigami Women’s Association complained and said they wanted a cuter name,” said Rukia, shrugging.

“So feminism’s hit the Soul Society, has it?” I asked.

Rukia’s eyebrows drew together. “Feminism?”

“Huh. I guess, when your women can beat the shit out of you, it’s a lot harder to suppress them.” I frowned thoughtfully. “In the living world, until very recently, women were seen as lesser beings in society. They were not allowed to have control of their own bodies, own property, vote in political elections, or do a number of other things. They were seen as the subservient counterparts to men. Feminism is the radical notion that women are just as good as men are. In the living world, if you hear about a women’s association, it’s usually championing the new-ish movement of ‘women’s rights’.”

“But women are vitally important! That’s totally barbaric!” Rukia sounded shocked.

“Yeah, well, I never said we were perfect.” I shrugged. 

“So why aren’t you all... depressed and downtrodden?” Rukia asked.

I chuckled. “Do I really seem like the kind of person who would fit in with being ‘depressed and downtrodden’? I’m unusually tough. A lot of people here at school don’t like it -- teachers, boys, that kind of thing. I got it from my Mom, I think. Now, question number two: why’s the pez dispenser a duck? Are they all animals?” I was curious.

“Another way to attempt to make Gikongan cuter,” said Rukia. “Of course, I wanted the rabbit. Much more adorable.”

I smiled a little. “You like rabbits, huh? You know, I have an old stuffed rabbit that I used to carry around with me as a kid. You can have it if you want.”

Rukia immediately looked excited. “You have a toy rabbit?”   
“Well, now it’s yours.” I was kind of amused. “So, what say we give it a try, okay?” I wanted to see just what this ‘fake soul’ was supposed to be like.

I popped the pill in my mouth and swallowed. There was a tingling sensation all up and down my body and then I was looking at my body. The shift was quite sudden. The body collapsed over.

I stared at it for a moment, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, the body jumped up. She hitched her skirt up higher, lifted her hair up into a ponytail, looked around, and beamed like barbie. Jumping up and down on the balls of her feet, she asked in a chipper, cheerful voice, “What’s going on, guys? How about a tennis match? Or we could look sexy in bathing suits! Ooh, or maybe a trip to the spa... Massages on me!” She gave a weird, tinkling sort of laugh.

I stared over at Rukia. “What. The Actual. Fuck.”

“Ooh, swearing -!” said the Gikongan.

“What are you, twelve?” I snapped, and she blinked, nonplussed. I whirled around to Rukia. “Rukia, she’s nothing like me! Everyone’s going to be able to tell!” I waved to the barbie-like Gikongan.

“Actually, Maki, the fake souls take on many of the characteristics of their first body. So, technically, she’s just like you,” said Rukia matter of factly.

“You’re telling me I have this inside me?” I asked incredulously. I pointed at Barbie.

“Gikongan were genetically engineered to be the perfect person. I’m sure she’s infinitely superior to the real you.” Rukia brushed off my worries. “Relax.” She took out her phone. “Now, come on, we have a mission.” She yanked me away.

I looked back over my shoulder to the school window where Tatsuki and Orihime were sitting. I pointed at the fake me, who was smiling and waving as she watched us go. ‘Watch her,’ I mouthed furiously.

-

I made it through the Hollow in record time and Rukia had to run to keep up with me as I hurried back toward the school. 

“Why are we running?! I’m sure she’s doing fine -!” We burst through the doors and down the corridors toward my classroom. Tatsuki and Orihime caught Rukia on the way by, looking desperate.

“Rukia-san, I don’t know what’s going on -”

“She just -”

“What is it?” Rukia asked urgently.

Tatsuki’s eyes strayed to me. “It’s Maki. She picked up an upperclassman boy -- formidable reserve, pale, sharp pretty-boy features -- and she took him into an empty bathroom and started making out with him. There’s a huge crowd around the door. No one can believe the nerve. Everyone’s wondering when a teacher’s going to walk in on them.”

I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. “What?”

-

We elbowed our way through the crowds around the bathroom door. Rukia slammed the door open, and Fake Maki and the boy jumped and looked up, breaking apart. I had to admit it: he was very good looking.

“I didn’t know that was your type, Maki,” Tatsuki muttered, smirking, just loud enough for me to overhear.

“Shut up,” I muttered back, my face a furious red.

Fake Maki stepped back, making a run for the bathroom window. By the time Rukia had gotten there, Fake Maki had vaulted through the bathroom window. “That’s three stories up -!” I shouted, running toward the bathroom window -

Fake Maki landed with perfect ease and began sprinting away faster than I’d ever seen somebody run.

“Kurosaki?” the boy was asking incredulously. There was muttering from the students behind us.

“Don’t worry, we can memory wipe them later,” Rukia began uneasily, because I’d turned a slow and furious glare toward her.

“Rukia -- what is that?”   
“Not a Gikongan,” admitted Rukia. “I got bad merchandise.”

-

I sensed the fake soul out and kept track of it as it ran its way through the city. I sprinted after it, trying to pretend I was racing Ryo, or Tatsuki. Eventually, I saw it come into sight ahead of me. Rukia wasn’t there, so I whispered a kidou spell to temporarily still it. I took out my sword, trying not to think about what I could potentially do to my body, and threw it at the fake soul. 

I pinned it to the wall behind it by its shirt, as I had intended.

Then I shunpo’d behind it, channeled reiatsu into my arms, and did the Heimlich on my own body. Out popped the little mod soul. 

I got back into my physical body and picked it up, glaring down at it. “You caused me a lot of trouble, you know,” I said in annoyance. Then: “What are you?”

Of course, the pill didn’t answer me.

-

I got back to the school, walking inside hesitantly -- all was calm. I made my way back into my classroom, and everyone was sitting around, smiling and talking, at ease. Nobody noticed when I came in.

Rukia came over, business like. “Do you have the pill?” It seemed to be lunch time. 

“Yeah,” I said, holding it up. “So you memory wiped everyone?”

Rukia held up a little air compressor. “They all think the boy you kissed outed himself as gay,” she said. “What?” she added, shrugging. “We don’t choose the memories.”

“So... does the boy himself think he’s gay?” I asked incredulously. “That’s, like, a sexual identity crisis. That’s years of therapy waiting to happen.”

“Not my problem,” said Rukia smoothly.

“Great, Rukia,” I congratulated her sarcastically. “Splendid way to handle the situation.”

Rukia glared. “Why are you angry with me?”

“Oh, I dunno,” I said. “Because you gave me a fake soul who wouldn’t give me my body back?”

Rukia winced. “... Let’s talk outside.”

-

So we went back to the same courtyard, and Rukia explained. She drew lots of dorky, cartoonish diagrams and drawings to aid her explanations.

“That soul is a mod soul, a Kaizo Konpaku, part of Project Spearhead,” said Rukia.

“Project Spearhead? Sounds scientific. Wait, where do all these synthetic souls come from?” I asked.

“The Shinigami are broken up into thirteen divisions, each with a Captain and a Vice Captain, all of whom are led by one single commander,” said Rukia. “Some divisions have specializations. The Second Division, for example, are ninja. The Fourth Division are healers. The Eleventh is very melee and battle heavy.

“The Twelfth Division heads the Soul Society’s scientific research. Spearhead was a twelfth division project involving the creation of what are called ‘mod souls.’

“Mod souls were created for combat. The idea was that they would be put into dead human bodies and would fight for the Shinigami. They would destroy Hollows. Each mod soul had a certain part of themselves which was given super strength; in the case of this mod soul, I would guess, it would be the legs.”

“But that’s their only ability,” I guessed, thinking back.

“Exactly. A lot of Shinigami took moral issue with the idea of the mod souls, so the project was discontinued. All mod souls were destroyed. I guess some evaded destruction.”

“So you’re telling me that girl’s life was created by the Soul Society, and then destroyed by that same Soul Society, for said society’s convenience? No wonder she was running away,” I muttered.

“It was what needed to be done,” said Rukia.

“No, in fact, it really wasn’t,” I returned flatly. “There were lots of things that could be done with the mod souls that did not involve destroying or even experimenting on them. You guys say it was all for moral reasons, but that’s not exactly a very moral outcome, is it?”

I looked down at the little mod soul pill. Then I looked up.

“I say it comes with us,” I said. “We can steal one of Yuzu’s dolls and put her in that.”

Rukia was cautious. “That’s extremely illegal,” she said. “She doesn’t even have a name.”

“We can call her Paku. We’ve both already broken the law. And any alternative’s completely immoral,” I said firmly. “So what’s it going to be?”

-

When Rukia’s illegal contacts showed up on campus, we were ready. We were walking back to class, feigning casualness, when four figures jumped down in front of us. A careless looking man with long blond hair, a hat, and clogs; a giant dreadlocked man; and two children, one a red-haired boy and the other a girl with black pigtails.

“Kuchiki-san,” the man with the blond hair offered, tipping his hat.

“Ah, Urahara. What a surprise,” said Rukia dryly. “Maki, this is Urahara Kisuke, my contact. These are his helpers, Tessai,” the one with dreadlocks, “Jinta,” the red-haired boy, “and Ururu,” the pigtailed girl.

“Kuchiki-san, I believe I gave you some bad merchandise,” said Urahara. “I would like it back.”

“Without a refund?” Rukia asked slyly. 

“Alright, I’ll give you a refund,” said Urahara, nonplussed.

“Well, that’s very nice of you, but unfortunately we’ve lost the product,” said Rukia. 

Urahara’s eyes widened. “You’ve lost it?”

“Yup. Can’t find it anywhere,” I confirmed. It was in my pocket.

Urahara stared at us for a moment. I suspected he saw right through it, but all he said in the end was, “Rukia-san, you’ve become terribly unpredictable since meeting this girl. It really is quite alarming.”

“Aww, you mean we came all this way and we can’t even fight?” Jinta complained. They all had large, bulky, wrapped-up objects with them that looked like weapons. People were staring at them in passing.

“Looks that way,” sighed Urahara. “Oh, well,” he muttered, moving past us, “I didn’t really want to fight today anyway.” He looked up casually at the sky.

I suspected I’d just gotten myself into the middle of some massive Shinigami cover-up.

Rukia turned to me then, taking out her phone. “Maki! We have a mission.” She took out her glove. “But I think we’ll just use this for now.”

“Sounds like a smart idea,” I admitted, smiling slightly. “Maybe we’ll save the whole doll thing for later."


	6. Chapter Six

6.

I checked the date on my calendar, like I always did before I went to bed each night. I paused, staring.

It was almost summer break. And tomorrow -- tomorrow would be the day before the anniversary of my mother’s death.

Feeling strange, I sat slowly back down. I’d just been so busy lately -- ever since high school had started, really, but especially after that, when the Shinigami had come into my life. It just... it hadn’t really hit me. Mom’s death. Of course. How could I forget something like that?

I hadn’t been visiting Hueco Mundo as much lately, either. It was like I was forgetting her. Like she was slowly fading away from my mind.

I couldn’t let that happen. 

I went out that night after Rukia had gone to bed, and viciously beat the shit out of Hollows. When I woke up again, I didn’t feel rested, but that was nothing new.

“Rise and shine!” Paku chirped from her little doll uniform, jumping around happily. “Early to bed, early to rise! Gotta get up and get in shape for those cute boys!” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“I don’t have to get in shape for anyone but myself,” I snapped, unusually severe, and then, my back ramrod straight, I moved to get dressed. Pulling at my skirt, fiddling with my hair. Making sure it was all perfect. I’d let myself go so much lately. What was wrong with me?

“Not that I don’t agree,” said Rukia, opening her closet door slowly. Her and Paku were both staring at me. “But don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”

“I was just stating a fact,” I snapped coldly.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rukia asked. My eyeliner skidded a little off into my face as I stiffened. I stopped and squeezed my eyes shut against the tears, feeling overwhelmed.

I felt this compulsive need to be perfect. To be like Mom, to replace her, or maybe even to make up for my role in her death. And I wasn’t perfect. Not now. Not even close.

“I’m fine,” I said, but my voice was a little thick.

“... No, you’re not,” said Rukia, standing, business like. “Now why don’t we just -?”   
“Rukia, my mother died tomorrow,” I said, my eyes still shut against the buildup in my temples.

Rukia paused. “... Oh,” she said. Then she admitted: “I know several people who have died, so I can understand.” Her voice was quiet, sad. She looked away. I realized I’d opened my eyes to look at her.

I smirked dryly, a terrible sadness weighing within me. “I bet none of them were eaten by Hollows, though, were they?” I guessed.

“Actually, one was.” Rukia and I eyed each other across the distance for a moment. “His name was Shiba Kaien,” she offered reservedly, and my eyes widened in surprise. “He was my superior officer, and my friend.” He was also probably my cousin, I didn’t say. “Sometimes, you remind me of him a little bit.”

Rukia looked away, swallowing. “Wow. That’s the first time I’ve talked about Kaien-dono since... His Hollow isn’t still out there. Is yours?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I think it’s the Grand Fisher.”

“He’s evaded capture for fifty years,” said Rukia, her eyes widening. “High prestige awaits whoever defeats him.”

“Well, that’s gonna be me,” I said firmly.

“I’m not going to tell you to be careful,” said Rukia. “I know it wouldn’t be any use.”

Paku walked up to me and put a hand on my leg. “All my friends were destroyed by the Shinigami,” she said sympathetically.

I smiled weakly, and some of the terrible weight inside me lessened.

“Now,” said Rukia, smiling slightly, “let’s do something about that makeup.”

-

I was unusually quiet that day at school. My friends understood. Tatsuki, Orihime, and Rukia explained to the others, who kept strangers from approaching me throughout the day. They fanned out, explaining to each and every teacher that I would be taking a break from school tomorrow to go visit my mother’s grave.

I concentrated on little things. Lining all my books and papers out so their edges perfectly aligned with each other. Practicing my ink paintings in art class. Perfection. Perfection made me feel better. Kept me from falling apart.

Even if other people made fun of me for it, I couldn’t afford to let myself go.

-

My family gathered around the dinner table that night. 

“I will now discuss duties for tomorrow,” my father announced. “As the chairman, I will make the decisions.”

“I protest!” Karin pounded her fist.

“Raise your hand to speak, chief of staff!” Dad shouted.

“Chief of staff, huh?” Karin smirked, sitting back. “Never mind, I’m satisfied.”

“I will be the driver to the graveyard,” said Isshin. “Maki will make the picnic lunch. Yuzu and Karin will prepare the incense and preparations for the grave.”

“I demand a bigger job as chief of staff!” said Karin.

“Rejected, chief of staff!” said Dad.

Yuzu pulled her rebellious twin sister back down by the arm. “We’ll do our best, sir,” she said, mock serious.

I smiled a little. “Karin,” I said at last, “you and Yuzu will be the only ones who have anything directly to do with the grave, you know. I’d say that’s pretty important.”

Karin faded, considering this. “I guess so... Hey, I wanted to ask you guys. Don’t get angry with me. But... Is there any point to this anymore? Now that, you know... now that we know what really happened to Mom?”

We all looked over hesitantly at Dad.

But Dad didn’t get angry. He smiled a little, sadly. “Of course,” he said. “We’re honoring her memory. Every year, I take the time to smoke a cigarette in front of Masaki’s grave and think about all the great times we had together.”

“Didn’t you quit smoking?” I asked.

“I did,” said Dad. “But Masaki always told me I looked cool when I smoked. Matter of fact, I think that’s the only compliment she ever paid me.” He shrugged, still smiling sadly. “She really loved you three girls a lot, you know. Enough to give up her life for you. It would do you good to remember her once a year.”

Yuzu was crying. “Aww, geez, Yuzu, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” said Karin in exasperation.

I was still watching Dad quietly.

-

We made it to the graveyard in one piece the next day. It was built on the side of a hill, and filled with grass and green trees. It was a pretty place, peaceful, with birds in the sky. The sort of place anyone would like to be buried in. Dad was extra goofy today, as if to make up for how hard the day was for the rest of us.

When we stopped at the gravesite, there was Rukia, standing beside the fenced-off entrance. 

“Whoa,” said Karin, stopping a ways away and staring. “She came?”

“You don’t know her, remember?” I reminded her tightly. I strolled past them and smiled over my shoulder at them. “Hey, guys, this is my friend Rukia,” I said louder. “Isn’t this great?!”   
“It sure is! Bringing a friend on a day like this!” My father gave a huge, false laugh.

Amazingly? Rukia didn’t notice anything. “Hello, everyone!” she said, beaming and waving.

I pulled her away into the trees.

“What’s wrong?” I asked urgently.

Rukia seemed surprise. “What? Nothing.”

“So why are you here?” I asked, confused.

“What if a Hollow appears and I’m not around?” Rukia crossed her arms firmly. “I have to be here.”

Of course. She was thinking of her duties as a Shinigami. The touching moment from this morning was gone. I tried not to be disappointed, stiffening.

“Right,” I said. “Of course.”

Rukia stared at me for a moment. “... Are you alright?” 

“Yes,” I said immediately, stubborn. “I’m fine.”

There was an uncomfortable pause. “Well,” said Rukia slowly at last, “if you’re certain...”

Paku suddenly popped out of Rukia’s day bag. “What’s all this uncomfortable tension?” she asked in a chipper voice. “Isn’t there a picnic to go to?!”   
-

Rukia sat with my family in a circle on the picnic blanket, and we all munched at the food I’d brought in the basket. 

“I say we start a new tradition!” Dad was saying enthusiastically. “Kurosaki Family Dominos Tournament!”

If Mom were here, she’d be laughing. As it was, Karin just said flatly, “That’s a stupid idea.”

“Masaki, our children are being mean to me!” Dad called.

“You always say that like she’s going to respond,” said Karin.

Yuzu was tearing up a little, so I put my hand over hers.

And that’s when I saw her. The girl from that day -- the same thin, satisfied lips, the same brutally short dark hair. She was standing a ways away in the copse of trees. I stood quickly, my eyes narrowed, sensing out the Hollow behind her -- it was a big one.

Just then, Rukia’s phone rang in an alert. Her face paled significantly as my family all looked up at me in surprise, at my deadly serious face.

“I see her,” I said lowly. Then, without warning, I ran toward the copse of trees.

“Nee-san?!” my sisters called after me, but only Rukia ran after me into the trees.

“Maki, wait!” she cried as she was running. “If that really is the Grand Fisher -!” I tuned her out. I was intently running after the fleeing form of the Hollow before me. It came out onto a flat patch of grass and turned around, facing me. It was covered in fur, the girl lure hanging from a fishing pole like instrument attached to its head.

“Maki!” Rukia said, panting, coming out behind me.

“Rukia,” I said, my eyes never off the Grand Fisher, “let me do this.” It was quiet this time. Matter of fact.

And, of all things, Rukia said, “... Okay. But be careful.” She threw me Paku, who was strangely quiet, out of some sense of honor or maybe of fear. I ate Paku’s soul pill, and then I was a Shinigami, and she was running away with my body, back into the trees.

“A weakling like you is going to take me on by yourself...?” the Hollow’s ancient voice said, the lights in his eyes narrowing in a smirk.

I unsheathed my sword and flew at him in response.

Grand Fisher was fast. He dodged around all my attacks, and would do things like disappear and then reappear right behind me. I had to go into shunpo just to keep up with him, and pretty soon it became a bit of a game, each of us dodging around and appearing behind the other. 

Neither of us could get an attack in edge wise. I couldn’t with my sword, and he couldn’t with his fur, which grew and retracted, the ends sharp and deadly. The fur also protected him from any dangerous attacks. When I finally cut at a part of his hair, I was victorious -- he was getting slower! But then I saw more just grow back in its place, and reach out toward me; I cursed and had to jump away again.

So, next I tried crying out a kido spell. I whispered the words, not even caring if Rukia was watching this time, and the jet of fire exploded right beside him, eating into him. I squinted through the smoke -- no good. The hair just grew back.

“You look frustrated,” said the Grand Fisher gleefully.

“I’m going to kill you, fuck face,” I snapped. “You killed my mother.”

“Oh, did I...? I’m sorry, I don’t remember. I don’t keep track of these things, you know.”

I saw red, and I knew all at once what I had to do. I ran toward him, closer and closer, not trying to dodge, and let him pierce me with his claws, the claws eating into my abdomen. I felt the dull thud, felt the horrifying pain, felt my heart pumping furiously and the blood building up as I was dragged forward, in closer toward the Grand Fisher.

“Maki!” I heard Rukia cry. I ignored her. I knew what I was doing.

“I know what you’re doing,” said the Grand Fisher. “You’re trying to get in closer toward me, to wound me. But I’ll let you in on a secret -- a neat little ability my claws have. It destroyed all the other Shinigami. My claws can search through your memory bank and pick out the face of the one person -- the one person -- you could never kill. And for you, that person is...”

And then the girl lure was let down before me, and her face changed. There before me was my mother’s face.

“Hello, Maki,” she smiled.

My eyes widened. Mom. But that wasn’t my Mom, I knew all at once, as I saw that big fake smile. That wasn’t Mom.

Mom was gone.

And I was avenging her.

I took out my sword and plunged it straight through the lure, under the Hollow’s stomach, and deep into its lower abdomen.

“Joke’s on you, fuck face,” I said, grinning through the pain. “I already killed my mother once.”

Mom’s face stilled, her face going blank, and then the mirage disappeared and in its place was just some blank white doll.

The Grand Fisher panicked, furiously trying to disengage. It let me go with its claws and the blood came pouring out. I didn’t have long before I passed out. The Grand Fisher kept trying to pull away, but there was my huge sword, twining us together.

“Too late, fuck face,” I panted. “You and me, we’re going down together.” 

I whispered the words of a kido spell and shot a jet of fire down the metal of my sword and straight into the Grand Fisher. He exploded in a ball of flame, and with one screech, he was gone.

The fire was coming out toward me now. I smiled, not bothering to move away. With these kinds of wounds, I was as good as dead anyway.

Besides, I’d done what I’d set out to do. I was free. I was free. 

Then Rukia suddenly rammed into me, yanking me away from the flames. “Are you crazy?!” I heard her shout in my ear, and I paused in surprise as I was dragged away from the dying, burning corpse of the Grand Fisher. I was just in time to see the doors of Hell open for him before I passed out.

-

I woke hazily to find myself staring at the sky. I woke up. Well, that was unexpected. I was awake. And, I was pretty sure, I was still myself.

“Am I dead?” I asked no one in particular.

“No, no thanks to you,” I heard Rukia say firmly. “Luckily for you, I have recovered enough reiatsu to do healing kido.”

I saw the blue emanating from her hands, felt my internals putting themselves to right with a funny sort of tingling. “... Huh,” I said thoughtfully, and then realized something else. “My sword’s at my back again.”

“Zanpakutoh recover as their owners do. You should really call it a zanpakutoh, you know,” Rukia sighed. “And that’s some incredible zanpakutoh ability you manifested.”

It took me a minute to remember what she meant. “You mean the fire?” I asked.

“Yes. That was incredible,” said Rukia.

“Thanks,” I said, not bothering to correct her. I still had my father’s secret to keep, after all.

“Maki -- what was that?” Rukia asked at last. “Why didn’t you try to get out of the way of the fire?” She sounded concerned.

I thought about it. “I told the Grand Fisher,” I said, “that I’d already killed my mother once. Well, it’s because... Okay, so we were at the park one day, right? A bunch of strong reiatsu signatures around -- mine, my mother’s, and my sisters’. So the Grand Fisher comes down looking for prey. And I’m the one who’s stupid enough to walk right into the lure...”

And all of a sudden, my voice had choked up, my eyes were watering. 

“And my mother has to shield me to save me... And I wake up and she’s just, gone. And I spend years searching for what killed her... years trying to be just like her... years trying to make up for what I’ve done...” I was crying, my face screwed up, the tears streaming down my face. “Rukia,” I admitted, “Rukia, I -- I killed my mother! I killed my own mother! He should have taken me that day, he should have -- Mom was so much better than I was!” 

I sat up and hugged her, crying. Rukia looked stunned. After a moment, she hugged me back, and she just sat there and let me cry.

And, for the first time since I was nine, I cried, long and hard. 

-

I got back into my body -- Paku gave it back to me, surprisingly enough. 

“I’m not sure if I should give this back to you,” she said sternly, hands on her hips, “if you’re just going to go off and try to kill yourself again!”   
“My suicidal moment has passed,” I promised her dryly, but with the tear tracks still on my face, it didn’t have quite the effect I’d wanted it to.

So Paku gave me back to my body, and I made it back to the picnic blanket in front of the grave. I had Rukia stay back so I could approach my family alone. They sat there, eyeing me warily.

“Is it gone?” Karin at last asked me cautiously.

I smiled, genuinely, and nodded.

“Yes!” Karin immediately said, pumping a fist and jumping into the air.

“I knew you could do it, Nee-chan,” said Yuzu admiringly.

“I have to admit, I’m jealous,” said Isshin, smirking.

And for the first time in a while, I let myself laugh.

I sat down with them on the picnic blanket. “You know,” I said, realizing it, “I don’t even know if I still want to be a Shinigami. I mean, hasn’t my reason for that just disappeared?”

My family was quiet for a moment.

“I would have thought,” said Isshin at last, “that you’d want to keep what happened to you from happening to others.” He eyed me sideways, faux casual. “You can only do that as a Shinigami.”

“You should still be a samurai,” said Karin. “You’re too badass not to be one.”

“Karin, they’re not samurai.”

“See? You already sound like a Shinigami.” Karin smirked as I gave her a Look.

I sat up straight. “You’re right,” I realized. “I do want to continue doing this.” I wasn’t sure why. It just... felt natural. Right, even.

I went back in the trees to Rukia to tell her of my decision, and tensed up when I saw it. Rukia in her gigai was face to face with a Shinigami spirit, an older male one with dark hair. Rukia looked tense, frowning.

“Kuchiki Rukia -- adopted by the Kuchiki nobles -- the famous ‘Princess of Rukongai.’ Everyone knew about you at the Shino Academy. What are you still doing here in the living world?” I heard the Shinigami ask. “You were expected back weeks ago. I was sent down to see what you were doing. You haven’t given your powers away, have you?”   
“Of course not!”   
“Because that’s illegal.”

“I know it is! I - I just - I’m undercover.” Rukia lifted her chin defiantly.

“You’re in a gigai... because you’re undercover,” repeated the Shinigami dubiously. “For what?”

“She’s protecting a family with unusually high reiatsu pressure,” I said, stepping out of the trees. They both turned to look at me. I scowled firmly. “She’s protecting mine.”

The Shinigami looked between us. “Still slightly illegal,” he said at last, “telling someone else about us. But hey, I’ll take it over being a traitor any day.” He raised his hands. “I’ll go back and tell higher command. I ain’t looking for trouble.” And he left.

As we were walking back toward my family, I said to Rukia, “I thought this was under the radar, but I had no idea it was so illegal.” I was curious. “But that should keep them away for a while, right?”

“Maybe.” Rukia winced. “But I might get an order asking me to return soon.

“And if that happens, I’m going to have to ignore it.”


	7. Chapter Seven

7.

I was so busy I didn’t notice it at first. 

You see, there was this big “seeing spirits” reality TV show filming on a local Karakura stage -- it was a stupid thing. I didn’t go, and neither did my family, Tatsuki, or Orihime. Spirits were a little too real for us. But it turned out the asshole who starred in the program, Don Kanonji, really could see spirits. He aggravated a ghost -- an earthbound jibaku spirit left behind by Shinigami who couldn’t get it to pass on -- into becoming a Hollow and the thing went on a gigantic rampage, hospitalizing Don Kanonji along with several other people.

Stuff like that’s a nightmare for Shinigami. Not only do we have to clean up after the Hollow and destroy it, we have to track down everyone who was at the show, heal them, and modify their memories, and even then the damage still isn’t completely swept under the rug. Urahara and his associates -- the shy Ururu, bratty Jinta, and stoic Tessai -- had to actually come out and help us put Karakura back together into a semblance of normality again. 

So I didn’t notice it at first. But slowly, it became more obvious as the weeks passed: someone was getting to the Hollows before me and Rukia did.

We weren’t sure how it was happening. Hollows would appear on Rukia’s radar, but by the time we’d gotten to that area, the Hollow was always already gone. I started sensing it out every time we were running toward a Hollow -- the Hollow would appear, but then an unfamiliar reiatsu signature would come in and the Hollow’s energy would disappear. Then the reiatsu signature that destroyed it would disappear, as if the person were trying to hide themselves. By the time we got there, the person was always gone. 

We were only lucky enough to get one ghost who was in the area at the time, and he’d had his eyes squeezed shut out of fear. He also tried to flirt with us, so we sent him off as a hell butterfly pretty quickly.

“It has to be some other Shinigami,” I said. “Someone else must have been sent down to this area. But why would they want to hide their work?”

“And why haven’t they contacted me?” Rukia asked, confused. “It would be weird in the first place for two Shinigami to be sent to the same area on a patrol mission -- that’s usually so carefully regulated. For two Shinigami to be sent to the same area and never meet up with one another is almost impossible.”

“I keep telling you,” I said, “I think this person is trying to avoid us. The question is... why?”

So I thought there was no chance of finding this person, right? But I walked into class one day, and there it was -- the signature. It was coming from a human boy with dark hair and glasses sitting in the front row.

I sat down slowly, staring at his back suspiciously. He looked around at me and raised an eyebrow. I looked away again quickly.

He didn’t feel like a Shinigami. That left the possibility of him being a Quincy.

“Hey, Mahana,” I muttered, leaning over and pointing. “Who’s that guy?”

“Oh, that? That’s Ishida Uryuu,” said Mahana. “Quiet kid. Top of our class.”

“He’s in mine and Michiru’s sewing circle,” Orihime added cheerfully. “He’s very crafty!”

So he was either gay or very comfortable in his masculinity, I supposed dryly.

Ishida Uryuu, huh?

-

I went to my Dad’s office. “Dad,” I asked, “did Mom know the Ishida family?”

Dad looked up in surprise. “You keep blindsiding me with these surprising questions...” he said slowly. “Yes, they’re another Quincy family. When we met, she was engaged to an Ishida Ryuuken. Why?”

“Does Ishida Ryuuken have a son named Uryuu? He’s in my class, and -- and I think he might be using his Quincy powers to destroy Hollows before I can get to them.”

My Dad sat back. “That’s highly illegal,” he admitted. “But the boy’s grandfather died against a Hollow, so the story goes. Perhaps he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”

“He doesn’t like the Shinigami because they didn’t save his grandfather,” I realized in a breath, my eyes widening.

I knew just what to do. It was time to be honest with Ishida Uryuu.

-

I turned off my reiatsu signature and followed him using stealth after school ended for the day. I got lost in the masses leaving the school grounds and then followed about two streets behind him at all times, sensing him out. At last, I was almost caught up to him, so I cut around a corner and stepped out before him.

He jumped badly, a glowing blue arrow and bow flying into his hand. 

I smiled, watching the glowing admiringly. “Wow,” I said. He stared at me. “Sorry,” I said, shrugging. “It’s just -- I’ve never seen Quincy power before. That’s so cool.”

“That would make you an -- unconventional Shinigami,” said Uryuu dryly. “I didn’t even know you could hide yourself like that. Your reiatsu’s usually so large and obvious.”

“I’d never had a reason to hide it,” I admitted, puzzled. “Uryuu, we need to talk.”

“If it’s about the Hollows, and if you want me to stop fighting them, the answer is no,” he said in a hard voice.

“I was actually going to say it would be great if we could work together,” I said readily. “I have to be an unconventional Shinigami -- I’m human, remember? And usually, when a human has reiatsu -- they’re called Quincy.”

“... What do you mean?” Uryuu asked cautiously, his eyes narrowed.

“My mother was a Quincy,” I admitted, and I saw surprise register over his features. “Quincy mother, Shinigami father. Just don’t go telling people, okay? It’s kind of a secret. My mother died against a Hollow when I was a kid -- sort of like with your grandfather. I was there when she died. 

“I set out to find a power that could defeat her killer, and that power just happened to be Shinigami power. But I have both abilities within me. So I was thinking -- if you could help me with my Quincy training, that would actually be great.

“I’d like for us to work together. I like the idea of there being someone like me out there. I’m not an official Shinigami or anything -- I’m just in it for the saving people. Saving people like me and my family. I don’t have any problem with you, and if you could fend off Hollows, and then I could come by and get rid of them -- I mean, we could make a great team. We don’t have to compete with each other.

“Rukia doesn’t have to know. I just... I always thought I was alone. You know? That there was no one else burdened like me out there. But here you are.” I waved, smiling. “That’s incredible to me.”

“... You sound like my grandfather. He always thought Quincy and Shinigami could work together, before the Shinigami betrayed him,” said Uryuu cautiously.

“But I’m not really a Shinigami,” I returned. 

“I know,” he admitted. “You have multiple allegiances, or say you do. And that makes things... complicated.” I could see him calculating. “There’s one way to verify if you’re telling the truth,” he said at last. “If you can activate Quincy powers, here within your human form, I’ll believe you.”

“But I don’t know how,” I pointed out.

“It’s easy. All you have to do is channel reiatsu through your arm and into your fingertip.”

So, shrugging, I tried this. A few moments later, that glowing blue appeared at the tips of my fingers. He grabbed my hand, staring at it.

“... Incredible,” he said at last. “You’re telling the truth. A Quincy and a Shinigami?” He sounded disbelieving, like this interfered with all his beliefs about how the world really worked.

“My mother was a Quincy Archer who saved my Shinigami Captain father. So maybe she was a little like your Grandpa,” I said, smiling.

He looked into my face. “Maybe...” he whispered. “You do realize,” he said at last, “that this changes everything. I mean -- I was going to compete against you as a Shinigami. You were my goal to beat.”

“That’s silly,” I said, shrugging. “Why be enemies when we can be allies? I’m not going to betray you. We’re not all bad, you know. My Dad ended his life as a Shinigami for my mother. And I know a Shinigami contact who let me keep a defective fake soul so it wouldn’t be destroyed.”

“Perhaps there are -- exceptions,” he allowed. 

“But you still resent the Shinigami for destroying the Quincy,” I guessed.

“I resent them for letting my pacifist grandfather die against a group of Hollows when he tried to hard to meet them halfway,” said Uryuu, shrugging. “To be honest, I think the Shinigami were right about keeping the balance of the universe.”

“Which is why it’s good that we can work together!” I said, beaming.

“... Yes,” Uryuu said at last, smiling slightly, “exactly.

“You know, it’s nice,” he admitted then. “I haven’t had a fellow Archer since my grandfather passed away.”

“Your father has rejected being a Quincy?” I guessed.

“My father has no Quincy power,” said Uryuu.

“Uh -- yeah, he does.” I frowned in confusion. He stared at me. “So Quincy lore goes, your Dad used to be engaged to my Mom. You learn something new every day, I guess.”

Uryuu looked down. “I should really have a talk with my father,” he muttered at last. Then, of all things, he said, “... Thank you.”

-

So, in secret, Uryuu and I began training. He started teaching me how to channel reiatsu, shape it into a bow, and become an archer. 

The hardest part was the reiatsu control it took. My bows started out as giant and massive, and Uryuu kept trying to get me to put them into a tinier and tinier form. It was extremely frustrating. We got snappish and our new friendship was tested a couple of times.

On the other hand, my aim was already excellent. 

“You have perfect aiming ability,” said Uryuu. “All you need to learn how to do is point the arrow where you think the target is going to be at the next second.”

I admitted to him a little bit of how I’d trained to avenge my mother. 

“You are both clever and dedicated,” he said. “As I would expect from a Quincy.” It was the highest compliment I could get from him.

Dad took the whole thing with patient, tolerant amusement. “You are your mother’s daughter,” he said. “Trust you to make a friend out of a sworn enemy. Maybe you two will be good for each other. You probably shouldn’t tell Rukia about it, though.”

Rukia was constantly confused about how the Hollows were always already injured when we approached them to destroy them. I pretended to be confused along with her, and told her I was going to meet with Orihime and Tatsuki every time I went to meet with Uryuu.

So now I had two secrets to keep: My father’s secret about my parents and his training of me. And Uryuu’s secret about his Quincy powers and our friendship.

-

I got in the top 50 of my class in end-of-semester finals. I won the Nationals karate tournament (Tatsuki would have, but she broke her arm during one of the matches). Rukia was safely integrated within my circle of friends, Shinigami missions had become positively easy, and I was still training in private with Uryuu. I felt better than I had in ages, freer and more at ease, and my family was doing well.

My life was going great. 

Then they came along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short little in-between chappie. I've always wondered what Uryuu would have been like if he'd known he was with a fellow Quincy.
> 
> Next up: The Shinigami make their grand entrance! Four seemingly human girls find out they have powers! Zanpakutoh stuff!
> 
> We're nearing the end of book one. Isn't that exciting?


	8. Chapter Eight

8.

I was walking with my friends to school.

“There’s going to be this big fireworks festival in August!” Orihime was saying cheerfully. “We should all go together!”

“Sounds good to me,” said Tatsuki, shrugging.

“Oh, Hime-chan, you’re so cute when you talk like that!” Chizuru went to cuddle with Orihime and Tatsuki smacked her over the back of the head, looking annoyed.

“Are you coming, Rukia-san?” Michiru asked shyly.

“Oh... of course. Sounds great.” Rukia smiled uncertainly.

“What about you, Mizuho?” Michiru asked. “Are you going to bring your brother?”

“Who’d want to bring him? He’s a pain in the ass,” said Mizuho. “But, I suppose I must.” Mizuho was gruff with affection. Not that I was any different, really.

“We could bring blankets,” I suggested, “and a barbecue. My family will probably be coming; my Dad has a barbecue.”

Orihime gasped. “Barbecue sauce and mayo time!”

“Barbecue sauce and mayo... at the same time? Somehow, you still manage to surprise me,” I said.

“I think the rest of us will just be having barbecue,” Tatsuki agreed in amusement.

“Isn’t your Dad the weird one?” Ryo asked uncertainly.

“Yup,” I agreed, because I always just agreed when my Dad and weird were involved. “He’s completely bizarre.”

We got to school and made it through classes. In phys ed, we played baseball and flipped Keigo off when he made weird comments in passing. (Orihime’s breasts were very popular among the boys, as were, for some reason, my legs and ass.) 

I kicked Uryuu on my way by. “Hey,” I muttered, “another training session -- tomorrow?”

I saw him nod slightly. Then we passed by each other and pretended it hadn’t occurred.

Lunch with my friends was fun. We chatted about boys and Orihime talked enthusiastically about her latest recipes -- she had a recent obsession with bean jam. Rukia showed off Paku, who all the other girls agreed was completely adorable, and I could tell Paku was very pleased with herself.

Class ended for the day and I went home to dinner with my family. Karin talked about her latest soccer game with the other boys at school, Yuzu about her plans to redecorate her room. Dad was his usual goofball self.

I brought dinner up to Rukia in her closet after the meal was over. We studied together, me helping Rukia through her homework. We both pulled our pajamas on, turned out the light, and made to go to sleep.

I was halfway asleep when all of a sudden I felt two giant reiatsu signatures approaching my house. I sat up, blinking the sleep out of my eyes -- and honestly, my first thought was, Fuck, a Hollow now? Really? 

But it wasn’t a Hollow at all. Two Shinigami ghosted through the wall and into my room. They were both noticeable. One had blood-red hair tied up behind his head and black tattoos running all across his face and down his body, which was hard and lean, made for killing. The other had long dark hair, a white head dress, a white cloak, and a beautiful if distant face, pale and sharp featured. Both wore something that said “Sixth Division.” I saw the black haired one gaze around my room and wrinkle his nose in distaste.

Asshole. I work hard on keeping this room looking nice, thank you very much.

“Uh... Rukia?” I said, sitting upright in bed and squinting at them. “I think there’s someone here to see you.”

“So she can see us,” said the red-haired one, sounding mildly impressed. “Not bad for a human.”

“You will memory wipe her later, Renji,” said the black-haired one, barely glancing at me. 

“Yes, Captain.”

Captain. That was what my father had been. Highest rank there was after commander. Which would make Renji his... Vice Captain?

Rukia peeked through the closet door, and gasped, her eyes widening. “Byakuya-nii-sama!” So the black haired one was Kuchiki, who had adopted her. Well, that explained the snobby look.

“Come, Rukia,” said Kuchiki Byakuya quietly. “We are leaving.”

“Leaving?” Rukia asked.

“Rukia, you moron, you broke the law by telling humans about us! The council’s talking about executing you!” said Renji, angry, not nearly as composed. “Your brother’s going to have to intervene for you. Geez, you’ve been here so long you’re even starting to sound human. Wipe that dumb human look off your face!”

Rukia was sitting there, gob smacked.

“Hey, asshole,” I said, frowning. “Don’t be mean to her. She was helping my family out!”

“She went outside her jurisdiction,” said Byakuya in a bored way, without looking at me. “She had just lost someone and was looking to escape her home. It had nothing to do with you, human girl, I can assure you.”

I glanced sideways at Rukia, who had looked down, pained. It wasn’t news to me -- she’d said she’d lost people, and had also said that she hadn’t talked about Shiba Kaien since his death. They were probably talking about him.

Renji walked forward, his face twisted. “Kuchiki Rukia, you are hereby arrested under the authority of Central 46 -”

They were going to execute her. I couldn’t let that happen.

I grabbed Paku, who had been cowering behind my nightstand. I stuffed my hand down her throat, grabbed the soul pill, and swallowed it. In a moment, I was a Shinigami and was standing in between Rukia and Renji.

“Whoa, big guy,” I said, smirking, my hand resting easily on the hilt of the giant sword behind me. “Not so fast.”

Renji and Byakuya’s eyes had widened.

“That’s why she’s in that gigai,” Renji breathed, his face stunned. “Rukia, you gave your powers away?”

“Is that illegal?” I asked.

Renji started laughing incredulously. “Is that illegal, she says! Hell yeah, you dumb human bitch, that’s illegal!”

I channeled reiatsu into my arm and punched him in the stomach so fast he could barely track me. He doubled over, gasping.

“First off,” I said calmly, “I’m not dumb. The bitch part I don’t give a fuck about. But I’m not dumb. Second, Rukia didn’t give me her powers. I stole them from her.”

“Maki, you idiot -!” Rukia began. I gave her a Look. I was trying to save her life here. The least she could do was let me work.

I looked forward and smirked, deciding to try out my acting skills.

“See, here’s the thing. I’d always been able to see Shinigami. I decided I was tired of standing on the side lines -- tired of not being a part of the show. I had too much power not to want to do something with it. So I kidnapped a Shinigami, trapped her in the living world, and stole her powers. Your sister just happened to come along at the right moment. And, cute little ex Shinigami that she is, it seems she’s grown fond of me. Who are you to interfere with that? I figure I might as well keep her around -- so you’re not taking her. And you’re not taking back her abilities.

“No way in hell.”

Rukia had helped me avenge my mother. So I decided to do her a favor. No way they could execute Rukia if she hadn’t actually broken the law, right?

“Maki - No! No, she’s lying!” said Rukia hysterically, which was pretty much exactly what a distraught kidnapping victim with Stockholm Syndrome would say.

Renji leaned forward, hand on his zanpakutoh, smirking. “I,” he said, his eyes narrow and livid, “am going to enjoy killing you.”

He slashed out at me with his sword, I channeled some reiatsu speed and dodged, and then it began.

He tried cutting me, but he couldn’t get a good handle on me. My reiatsu control wasn’t bad and my speed was superb, and I was fluid, constantly moving around him. On the rare occasions his sword did come into close contact with me, I’d had years of training in kendo and mine was bigger. We sparred, clashed, shot kido spells at each other, broke them, moved around each other, each of us standing on an air level just outside my house. 

At last, I managed to push his zanpakutoh out of his hands and sheath my sword, coming in toward him where I was even better: in hand to hand combat. It was the first time I had tried bringing my hand to hand and my reiatsu together, and it was incredible. In a matter of seconds, Renji was unconscious, falling toward the ground.

I whirled around to Kuchiki Byakuya. “You next!” I said, grinning.

But Rukia’s eyes were round and horrified. “Maki, no -!” she began. But it was too late.

Kuchiki Byakuya raised his sword in the air, eyes narrowed. “Scatter,” he said, “Senbonzakura.”

I had just enough time to register that he was about to use his zanpakutoh spirit before a thousand edge-sharp cherry blossom petals appeared and pierced into me all at once.

-

I came back to myself, vaguely, lying on the ground in terrific pain. 

“It’s over, Rukia,” Byakuya was saying. “She is dead.”

“Maki -! Maki -!” I heard Rukia calling to me, as if from a long way off.

I felt a pair of feet land beside me and a hand was placed on my back. All my reiatsu was sucked out of me at once, and then I was just a soul, thrown out across the ground, bleeding horrifically. “Rukia’s powers will now be returned to her,” said Byakuya softly, standing. “You are not bad. But you will never best someone from the Seireitei.”

Just as he stood, I heard my father burst out of the house. “Maki!” I heard him call, and had just enough presence of mind to think, Shit.

Byakuya paused. “Shiba Isshin?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “This is -- this is your daughter? I see. Copulation with a human.” He sounded vaguely disgusted.

“Maki,” I heard my father breath. Then there was a clapping sound. I strained to look up, and was rewarded with the sight of my father being arrested by Kuchiki Byakuya. 

“Shiba Isshin, you are under arrest for -”

“Dad!” Karin and Yuzu ran out of the house and Renji -- who had woken up -- zipped in front of them and held them back. “What are you doing to our Dad?!” I heard Karin cry. “He’s just a human!”   
“Just a human? Shiba Isshin is a Shinigami, and he was born in the Soul Society. He turned traitor decades ago.” Kuchiki Byakuya raised an imperious eyebrow. Then he said, “Come, Renji. Take Rukia. We are leaving.”

As the four made to leave, I tried. Hard. I tried to stand up, I really did. But the sakura petals had eaten into my muscles and bones, and I collapsed again, in horrific pain.

“She is awake,” I heard Byakuya say in surprise.

“Maki! Maki, don’t come any closer!” said Rukia, distraught, from her place held by Renji.

“She’s right, kid.” My father sounded sad. “If you get yourself killed on my account, Masaki will never forgive me.”

“A fruitless argument, as she will die anyway,” said Byakuya smoothly. “But the advice is sensible. Stay where you are. Human.”

I snarled helplessly from my place on the ground. “Fuck you,” I breathed through the pain.   
“Your anger is inconsequential to me,” said Byakuya smoothly. “Renji -- take us home.”

Renji put his zanpakutoh out into the air before him, and a pair of rice paper screen doors appeared. They slid open on their own. My father, one of my closest friends, Renji, and Byakuya disappeared through the doors, and were gone. 

That’s right about when I passed out.

-

I woke staring at a ceiling. I sat up slowly. “Am I... in the Soul Society...?” I wondered aloud. I looked down at myself. I seemed unharmed.

“Not at all. You’re back in your body in the world of the living.” I looked up to find Orihime smiling painfully. 

Orihime was there in the room. So were Karin, Yuzu, Tatsuki, and Uryuu. 

“Urahara-san kept us here, so we wouldn’t be memory wiped by the Shinigami. No one else besides us will remember that Rukia existed,” Orihime continued. 

“This is Urahara’s place?” I looked around. It was very traditional, with rice paper screen doors, sort of like that entrance to the Soul Society had been.

“He brought us up to speed,” said Karin darkly. “He explained everything.”

I looked over at Karin and Yuzu and winced. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have told you about Dad -”

“Don’t worry about it, he asked you not to,” said Karin. “It’s just -- that’s kind of a big thing to keep from us, you know?”

Yuzu leaned forward and hugged me. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered tremblingly.

“You looked like shit. Even with their special kido healing, you were out for a day,” said Tatsuki. “And the only reason why I’m here is because here’s the place where I find out how I beat the shit out of the people who hurt you.”

I turned to Uryuu. “I’m here because this is my chance to destroy the Shinigami,” Uryuu admitted, shrugging. “We Quincy generally tend to favor that, you know.”

I smiled despite myself. “But... none of us are Shinigami anymore,” I said, confused. “How are we supposed to do anything?”

“Excellent question!” Urahara walked in, smiling brightly. He was closely followed by a beautiful dark-skinned woman with exotic gold eyes. “Everyone, this is Yoruichi. She and I have a little proposition for you.”

“What is it?” Tatsuki asked expectantly, standing up straighter.

“We strongly suspect all of you have gained spiritual power from being around Maki so much,” said Urahara. “We have a month before the executions of Shiba Isshin and Kuchiki Rukia. We will take ten days to do two things: Turn Maki back into a Shinigami and give her a little power boost. And teach each of you how to use your own powers to assist Maki in her fight against the Seireitei.”

“I do have Quincy powers. You know that,” I said.

“It won’t be enough,” said Yoruichi seriously, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “In order for you to defeat the Soul Society, you’ll need a zanpakutoh spirit, and that means finding Shinigami power through your own strength.”

I nodded. “So, after that... how do we get to the Seireitei?” I asked.

“You’ll be using my back door,” said Urahara.

“And once there, I’ll be accompanying you,” added Yoruichi.

“So we get in, beat the shit out of a few people, find Rukia and Dad, and get them back out?” Karin guessed.

“Essentially,” said Urahara.

“Sounds great,” I said, smirking. “So when do we get started?”

-

We were taken below the shop, to a great desert field that lay underneath it. An illusion of sky lay above us, a spiritual ground lay below.

“Urahara came up with it,” said Yoruichi, “in secret when we were younger. He hid one in the Soul Society, too.”

“Wait, so -- you guys are from the Soul Society?”

“Did you think we were ordinary people? Both Urahara Kisuke and I were Shinigami Captains once, sent to exile,” revealed Yoruichi, smirking. “Tessai used to be head of the Kido Corps.”

I had a suspicion. “Did my Dad know you? He said something about knowing somewhere we could train for kido...”

“Intimately,” said Urahara, smirking. “He and Ryuuken always kept in contact with us. I was the one who bound your parents’ souls together. You’re welcome,” he added dryly.

“So, you’re -- a scientist?” I guessed.

“Correct,” said Urahara, pointing. “And all this is going to be of my own invention. So here’s the deal.” Jinta, Ururu, Tessai, and Yoruichi all stood behind him; me, Orihime, Tatsuki, Karin, Yuzu, and Uryuu stood in front. Urahara reached out with a cane that had the Soul Society symbol on the bottom, hit me in the forehead, and my soul popped out, the Chain of Fate still attached.

I immediately collapsed, choking. I couldn’t breathe.

“Maki is completely helpless. She’s just some lone mortal human. She cannot even breathe correctly outside her physical body,” said Urahara, still smiling cheerfully. “Now, here’s the rest of yours chance to save her! Yoruichi, Tessai, Jinta, Ururu --” Urahara smirked. “Attack.”

They all ran at us. Tatsuki swore; she went to pick me up, on Orihime’s behest, and moved to run, but in a burst of reiatsu-induced speed they all had us surrounded. 

Uryuu attacked first. He began shooting arrows pell-mell at the spirits around him, only for Tessai to whisper a kidou spell and bind his arms together, making him fall to the ground. Uryuu struggled, and Tessai kept his hand seal, struggling back.

Then Yoruichi flew at me and Tatsuki. Tatsuki dropped me and was kicked away in a hand to hand move. She wiped her mouth, looked up glaring, and said, “Alright.”

Tatsuki was pissed off.

She flew at Yoruichi, who was a hand to hand specialist. Tatsuki was beaten around a lot at first, but then slowly I saw Tatsuki start to get better, faster. Tatsuki was learning how to channel reiatsu to help with her hand to hand. Tatsuki slowly got faster, and then Yoruichi got faster to compete with Tatsuki, and pretty soon it was an all-out battle.

Once, at last, Tatsuki was thrown to the ground. She threw her hands outward -- and two things happened simultaneously. A glowing gold shield appeared before Tatsuki -- I looked around and saw Orihime standing there, her hands out, her face determined --- healing and shielding would turn out to be Orihime’s specialties -- and then two foxes glowing blue and made of reiatsu appeared from Tatsuki’s hands, leaping outward in an attack.

I looked around. Jinta and Ururu, with big weapons, were fighting Yuzu and Karin. Karin was running all around them, and Yuzu was standing there looking determined, and Jinta and Ururu were shooting completely in the wrong direction. Then all of a sudden, the attack was revealed at once. Karin pulled and revealed an interconnected web of blue, spider-like, that had the two caught in its embrace.

And Yuzu lifted the mind control spell, smiling peaceably, even as Jinta shouted out in shock.

“You’re just sitting here, are you?” I looked up behind me in dread. Urahara was standing there, smiling. And then he took a zanpakutoh right out of his soul cane. “Let’s play, yeah?” he said.

And he chased after me as I began running, still breathless. He cut and cut behind me with long strokes, destroying bits of land as we passed. Then he shot forward in a burst of speed, stabbed out at me, and I dodged, skidding away, shocked.

Urahara stopped and beamed. “Lesson One,” he called, “has been completed!”

Everyone stopped and looked around, the attacks ceasing. The training area was a mess. 

“Maki proved she could dodge my attacks as a spirit, revealing her true reiatsu ability -- and Maki’s friends discovered their powers. Now you all need to clear out,” said Urahara, “while I teach Maki how to get in touch with her Shinigami powers. Yoruichi will show you to a training ground where you will work on your new abilities.”

Still looking uncertain, everybody cleared out. “Be careful, Maki,” said Tatsuki warningly, suspicious.

Urahara turned right around, and cut through my chain of fate.

I stared in horror. “You just killed me,” I said.

Then Tessai jumped at me, bound my arms in a kido spell, and shoved me through down a long shaft with straight walls. I landed at the bottom with a painful thud, and rolled around, my arms still bound, my chain of fate swinging around me to curl at my side.

“Here’s how this works, Maki,” said Urahara brightly. “You are dead and bound in a shaft that was specifically built to speed up your transformation into a Hollow. You see that your chain of fate is already shortening, eating away at itself. You have 72 hours before you become a Hollow. At that point, I will have to destroy you. 

“Your only hope is to find your Shinigami powers. You either become a Shinigami, or you become a Hollow. The choice is yours.”

Urahara waved me away. “Only when you are a Shinigami will you be able to release yourself from the shaft,” he said. “So focus on that.

“Tessai -- make sure she remains bound.”

And then I was sitting, quite alone, with little monsters eating painfully at the chain, which was coming in shorter and shorter toward my chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now there will be a reason for Toshiro and Rangiku to get more personally involved with Maki. Because everyone needs a little bit more Toshiro and Rangiku in their lives. ;)


	9. Chapter Nine

9.

The only thing I could think of was to try the meditation my father had showed me, to get in touch with my zanpakutoh spirit. So I sat straight up, legs crossed, and waited patiently for the pain to subside, the pain coming from the chain in the center of my chest.

Eventually, the little mouths of the chain stopped eating at each other, fading away.

Now was my chance. I closed my eyes and concentrated.

It took longer than usual, but eventually there was the flame, flickering to life. I went in further and further toward it, concentrating longer and longer... It was peaceful. Almost soothing.

“So you’re finally here, huh?”

I looked up around myself, and I was somewhere else entirely.

I was seated in a vast underground cavern, flickering red. Stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor, dripping water. Despite this, there was a vast fire in the center of the damp, bringing warmth to the cavern.

“How is the fire there?” is the first thing I asked.

“How is the fire there?” The woman standing above me grinned and mocked me.

I bristled. “Well,” I snapped, “how is it?”

“This is your world, kid. Anything you want to happen, happens. If you want to get all metaphorical about it, in your soul world, flame can grow even in the harshest and unlikeliest of places.”

This was when I really registered the woman’s appearance, and I stared, taking her in.

She was tall and curvy, with silky dark hair and provocative dark clothes. Bracelets of fire floated around her wrists. 

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m you,” she said simply, smirking. “I’m your power. I’m here to beat the shit out of all the people you have a problem with -- one of my personal favorite things to do,” she added, drawling. 

“Why couldn’t I talk to you before?”

Suddenly, the woman grew bigger, her face fearsome, her teeth growing sharp. “And whose fault is that?!” she screeched. “You took that inferior girl’s ice power and I couldn’t contact you at all!”

I had backed up, my eyes widening in surprise. “Alright,” I said, raising a hand. “I’m sorry.”

The woman deflated, glaring at me suspiciously. “Yes,” she said at last. “Well. See that you remain that way.”

“For months, I’ve wanted to ask...” I added wonderingly. “What is your name?”

So she smirked, kneeled down, and told me.

-

I felt the rush of power, felt the chain fade away. Channeling the reiatsu, I shot energy into my legs and leaped upward, straight out of the hole. Another almost lazy wave of power and the kido spell had broken.

Urahara, Jinta, and Ururu turned around.

“It hasn’t even been a day,” said Jinta disbelievingly.

“I’ve been working on that one for a while,” I admitted, smirking. Thanks, Dad. 

There I was, standing before them, in black shihakushou.

“Excellent!” said Urahara, beaming, as a surprised Tessai leaped out of the hole behind me. “Now for lesson three. This one is simple. Knock the hat off my head.”

I smirked, reached behind me -- and paused in surprise. I was still carrying my giant katana. “What the hell?” I asked.

Then the woman’s voice, almost eager, called out to me. Summon me, she said in excitement. So I shrugged and did as she asked.

I put the giant katana out before me and called it out. “Flaunt, Sen’ei-ka Kurimuzon!”

The blade transformed into a black tanto, with a crimson tie around its hilt. I wasn’t too good with daggers, but I was good with throwing. I threw the dagger outward, and as it flew several other daggers of red fire appeared around it in a circle. They became a rotating wheel of fire with the main zanpakutoh as their center, and Urahara had to jump and dodge out of the way as the zanpakutoh landed in an explosion of flame.

In another moment, the zanpakutoh had zipped back to me.

“Well,” said Urahara, his eyebrows risen. “That was unexpected.”

But I wasn’t done. I waved a hand and the flame moved to my will. It flew around Urahara Kisuke in a circle, blocking his arms and thus his access to his zanpakutoh. Then I threw the dagger again; his hat fell off and the flames ate it.

The dagger came back and the fire faded away to my will.

“Like that?” I asked seriously. 

Urahara’s eyes narrowed. “I could go bankai and kill you for destroying my hat. But I’m in a good mood today.”

“Bankai?” I asked.

“The next release after the initial shikai,” said Urahara, waving a hand carelessly. “That will come later, with Yoruichi. For now, let’s concentrate on your shikai.”

He and Sen’ei-ka taught me how to fight with my tanto -- it was surprisingly easy, but then it was my zanpakutoh -- and they also drilled into me the intent to kill. A vital skill, they said, for any Shinigami. Then we took a whole day trying to get me to control my giant reserves of power enough to go back into an unusually large asauchi.

It was a long nine days.

-

I got my body back and met back up with my friends. We were just in time for the end of school. Two incredibly boring, heat-filled days in the classroom and we were done.

“Alright, guys, try to stay alive till September!” said our last teacher for the day, and I couldn’t help cheering with the rest.

We had a few days left before Urahara called on us again -- he had to get the portal to the Soul Society ready for us and Yoruichi -- so me, my sisters, Orihime, and Tatsuki got the rest of our friends together. Ryo, Chizuru, Michiru, Mahana, and Mizuho. Then we all packed ourselves into Tatsuki’s mom’s car and drove down to the seashore on one of the days. We lazed around, sunning ourselves on the beach, splashing in the water, playing games. We tried the local open-air baths.

We got back and the fireworks festival was that very night, so we all dressed up and went out to that, enjoying the blazing colors bursting in the sky above us.

We knew to enjoy ourselves while we could. We wouldn’t have much respite once we got to the Soul Society.

-

The next night, the mood in the house was restless, shifting. The tone had been off ever since Dad’s arrest. He was usually so boisterous, the place felt empty without him. 

I took Paku’s soul pill and left her in my body.

“Be careful with me, you got that?” I asked seriously. “If I’m going to bring Rukia and my father back, I can’t be worrying about other things.”

Paku nodded. “The cookbooks are in the cupboard.” She beamed. “I get to sample culinary delights!” Paku was not a fighter -- her role in all this didn’t bother her.

I went downstairs and got my coat on by the front door with Karin and Yuzu. Each of us looked serious.

“I would dress you in shihakushou to disguise you, but I don’t have any,” I said, looking them over. “We’re all just going to have to do our best.”

“Of course we will,” said Karin. “Yoruichi’s been training us, and Urahara’s been training you.”

“They wouldn’t let us go if they didn’t think we’d make it,” Yuzu added.

This was an optimistic way of looking at things, but I decided not to question her. If she was confident, let her be confident. That may be all we had going for us.

We met Orihime and Tatsuki on the way to Urahara’s shop, and when we walked up to the storefront Uryuu was waiting quietly outside.

“There he is, the only guy,” said Tatsuki, grinning.

“I am not bothered by being the only boy here,” said Uryuu calmly. “I get along well with women. Only an insecure man would be bothered in the company of women.”

“You’re so enlightened, Ishida-kun!” said Orihime brightly.

Uryuu blinked. “Is she being sarcastic?”

“Nah,” said Tatsuki casually. “She doesn’t have it in her. Now, guys -- we all agreed to do this. So let’s do our best, huh?” Now she was in ‘karate teacher’ mode.

And we all agreed fervently. I looked around me -- we were in it for the long haul. I was satisfied with my choice of company. I felt safer around them.

“Wise words.” We looked around find Yoruichi leaning languidly in the doorway, her expression veiled. She stood aside for our entry. “Ready?” 

We nodded seriously and entered the shop, going through the hole in the floor and down below it to the desert training space. It had been cleaned up. Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai were all there alongside Urahara.

Urahara put out his hand, and a stone archway flickered to life at his touch.

“This,” he said, “is the portal to the Soul Society. It’s known as the Senkaimon. It also has a spiritual particle conversion machine attached to it. Because of this, any living bodies will become spirits immediately upon walking through the Senkaimon. 

“We have four minutes upon activating the Senkaimon before it closes up again. Just four. You have to make it through the tunnel and into the Soul Society inside those four minutes. If you fail, you will be stuck forever in the space between the worlds.

“Yoruichi will be your guide through the Soul Society.”

Yoruichi walked up to stand in front of us, and then she shifted and transformed, becoming a small black cat.

“You don’t want to be recognized,” I realized.

Yoruichi nodded. “Bright girl,” she said, her voice much gruffer in her cat form.

Tessai and Urahara knelt on either side of the archway. They put their hands to it and the inside began to glow blue with spiritual energy.

“Run inside the minute it opens,” said Urahara, and we nodded.

“I’m nervous,” Orihime admitted.

“Well, if it’s any consolation,” I added dryly, “if you go down, we’ll all be going down with you.”

“Nee-san, that was the exact opposite of comforting,” Yuzu informed me. I saw her and Karin shift, instinctively, a little closer to me.

“You do what you must,” said Yoruichi from ahead of us. “Put your heart and soul into it, and you will succeed. But if you must turn back, turn back now, before it’s too late.”

“We’re not leaving,” said Tatsuki firmly, and that was that.

The glowing heightened, and then faded away, becoming transparent. I jumped into the opening, and my friends followed me. Then we were running through a strange electric energy, toward the Soul Society.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sen'ei-ka Kurimuzon translates as Sharpened Crimson. The second book in the series, Sharpened Flame, which is about the Soul Society, should be following soon.


	10. Author's Note

As is probably obvious by this point, I will not be finishing the Sharpened series.

I do, however, have a new fem Ichigo story on FF. Some of the ideas from this fic will be used in that fic. It's called "Look Like You've Seen A Ghost" by Rhoswen Eolande.

This is not really a plug. It's more so y'all don't freak out if you occasionally see ideas from this fic on that account's story.


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